Marvallous Keene, Dayton's notorious "Christmas killer," was put to death by lethal injection this morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
Marvallous Keene could die only once. That was not enough for family members of some of his victims.
Keene, 36, paid the ultimate price today for a Christmastime killing spree in Dayton in 1992 that left 5 people dead and a string of broken lives and dreams.
Keene died at 10:36 a.m. from a lethal injection of chemicals administered at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. "No, I have no words," he said when asked whether he had any last words.
Seven witnesses, including 2 in wheelchairs, for the victims watched the execution from a witness room adjacent to the death chamber.
Keene was the 2nd serial killer to be executed in Ohio in a week, following John Fautenberry of Trumbull County last Tuesday. Together, they accounted for 10 murders.
The Ohio Supreme Court subsequently changed its procedures so executions occur no closer than 3 weeks apart.
Keene's death rampage took the lives of Joseph Wilkerson, 34; Danita Gullette, 18; Sarah Abraham, 38; Wendy Cottrill, 16, and Marvin Washington, 18. A convoluted chain of events involving several people, some of them juveniles, began on Christmas Eve 1992 when Keene shot Wilkerson with a .32-caliber handgun at Wilkerson's Dayton home.
Keene and another man then shot Gullette, apparently picking her out at random, while she stood at a pay phone.
On Christmas Day, Keene and his companions stole a car which they used to rob a convenience store the following day. Keene shot Abraham, a store clerk, after she handed over $30 from the cash register.
Later, fearing his young accomplices might go to the police, Keene drove Cottrill to a gravel pit where he killed her. Another accomplice, DeMarcus Smith, shot and killed Washington.
Keene's conviction and death sentences were upheld by courts at all levels.
He did not request clemency, but the process is mandatory under Ohio law prior to an execution.
The Ohio Parole Board, in unanimous recommendation, said Keene's victims were killed in "a cold and calculated manner" that did not warrant mercy. Gov. Ted Strickland rejected clemency without comment.
Defense attorneys said Keene, who was 19 at the time of the slayings, was despondent over the death of his brother, who was shot and killed a year earlier. At his trial, Keene also told a 3-judge panel that a falling-out with his father contributed to his troubled emotional state.
Keene becomes the 3rd condemned inmate in Ohio to be put to death this year and the 31st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999. At least 7 more execution dates are currently set in the state through January 2010.
Keene becomes the 35th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1171st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. It was the 1000th execution in the nation via lethal injection since it was first used on condemned inmate Charlie Brooks in Texas on December 7, 1982.
Since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976, there have been 155 executions carried out by electrocution, 11 in gas chambers, 3 hangings and 2 shooting deaths by firing squads. The USA has more methods (5) of executions than any other country in the world.
Sources: Dayton Daily News, Columbus Dispatch & RIck Halperin, July 21, 2009
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