Ohio executes Reginald Brooks

Reginald Brooks

Reginald Brooks’ execution was carried out. His time of death was 2:04 p.m.

An Ohio man who killed his three sons after his wife served him with divorce papers was executed Tuesday afternoon, after exhausting his final appeals, according to officials.

Reginald Brooks, who has spent nearly three decades on death row, was convicted of shooting to death each of his three sons, aged 11, 15 and 17, while they were in their beds in East Cleveland in 1982. His wife had served him with divorce papers two days before the killings.

Defense lawyers have argued that Brooks was a paranoid schizophrenic and suffered from mental illness before he killed his sons. He was denied clemency by both the Ohio Parole Board and Kasich.

Brooks, 66, was the oldest person put to death since Ohio resumed executions in 1999.

Brooks was the first person to be put to death in Ohio since a federal judge delayed the execution of Kenneth Smith in July and came after the state issued revised execution procedures in September that it said addressed the judge's concerns.

Brooks had claimed that Ohio had made only cosmetic changes and that its death penalty practices may have worsened in the last few months.

Ohio has executed four men in 2011, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. There have been thirty-nine executions in the United States so far this year.

Oba Chandler, 65, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection later on Tuesday in Florida for killing a woman and her two daughters who stopped him to ask for directions after visiting Disney World.

Source: Reuters, NewsChannel5, November 15, 2011

Cleveland child-killer now dead

With his middle-finger on his left hand raised toward his watching ex-wife even after the lethal chemicals had done their job today, child killer Reginald Brooks was defiant to the end – and beyond.

Those witnessing the execution behind glass about 10 feet away gasped but said nothing as Brooks first glared at and then “flipped off” the mother of the 3 children he murdered nearly 30 years ago after she filed for divorce.

Brooks was declared dead at 2:04 p.m., after about 15 minutes of the chemicals flowing. He had no final words.

Brooks declined to make a final statement and remained silent. Witnesses, which included his former wife and her sisters, had a view of his left hand, its middle finger raised. Prison officials said he was making the same gesture with his right hand.

At 66, Brooks was the 46th, and oldest, Ohioan to be executed since 1999.

Brooks lived nearly 30 years longer than the three sons he murdered in their beds in their East Cleveland home. His victims included Reginald Jr., 17, and Vaughn, 15, and Niarchos, 11.

His execution was delayed from 10 this morning while first a federal judge in Cleveland and then the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on his mental competency. Brooks’ attorneys decided not to file another attempt with the U.S. Supreme Court, which had rejected an earlier appeal.

Among the witnesses to the execution: Beverly Brooks, the victims’ mother; Mauria Fluker and Monica Stephens, the victims’ aunts; and Joyce Powell, Beverly’s friend. All were wearing white T-shirts with pictures of the three boys on front and had their arms around each other.

Witnesses for Brooks: attorneys Alan Rossman and Michael Benza, and the Rev. Ernie Sanders.

It was the 5th execution this year, but the 1st since May 17 due to a court fight over lethal injection protocol and 2 clemencies granted by Gov. John Kasich. The governor declined clemency without comment in Brooks’ case.

While Brooks’ appeals lasted nearly 3 decades, there was never any doubt about his guilt.

All courts rejected claims by Brooks’ attorneys that he should not be executed because he suffered from mental illness, specifically paranoid schizophrenia, post traumatic stress disorder, and psychogenic amnesia.

Court records showed Brooks’ premeditated pattern beginning about 10 days prior to the murders when he obtained an advance on his credit card and traveled to North Olmsted where he bought the gun and ammunition.

A few days later, his wife, Beverly, filed for divorce.

After Beverly Brooks left for work on March 6, 1982, her husband used the gun he had purchased to kill all 3 of their sons in their beds. He turned up the stereo so the neighbors wouldn’t hear the gunshots.

Brooks then packed the gun in a suitcase, bought a Continental Trailways bus ticket, and left for Las Vegas. He was arrested in Utah with the murder weapon still in his luggage.

Brooks never admitted to murdering his children, nor showed any remorse. Instead, he offered “ nonsensical ‘theories’ about who committed the crime,” said the Ohio Parole Board which unanimously recommended against clemency.

Brooks becomes the 40th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1274th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Columbus Dispatch & Rick Halperin, November 15, 2011