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| Donald Palmer |
CINCINNATI — An Ohio inmate executed Thursday for killing two strangers in 1989 was calm but emotional as he spent some of his last hours visiting with his grown children, praying and writing letters, prison officials said.
Donald Palmer, 43, spent the 24 hours leading up to his execution by lethal injection meeting several times with his grown daughter and son, his ex-wife and his spiritual advisers, said JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
She described one of the visits between Palmer and his children as "very emotional."
"They prayed together, they were reading the Bible and singing," Smith said, adding that Palmer also was calm and cooperative as he's spoken to the execution team.
Palmer was being held in the state's single-cell death house in Lucasville in southern Ohio as officials prepared to execute him by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Thursday.
His lawyer, David Stebbins, said Wednesday that he didn't plan to file any other appeals on Palmer's behalf and expected the execution to proceed.
"He has always accepted responsibility for this and wants the families of his victims to have justice," said Stebbins, who was among the witnesses to the execution. The time of death was 10:35 a.m.
Donald Palmer's last words before execution.
Palmer was convicted of aggravated murder in the May 8, 1989, shooting deaths of Charles Sponhaltz and Steven Vargo along a Belmont County road in eastern Ohio. He didn't know either of the men. Both married fathers both were shot in the head.
Stebbins said that Palmer has wanted to apologize to his victims' families but that he didn't have the means to do so.
Palmer had decided not to request mercy from the Ohio Parole Board, which can recommend clemency for a condemned inmate to the governor.
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Holding cell at the Southern Correctional
Center in Lucasville, where Ohio death
row inmates spend their final hours. |
For his final meal on Wednesday night, Palmer requested chipped ham, Velveeta cheese, 12 ounces of Helman's mayonnaise, two sliced fresh tomatoes, one loaf of wheat bread, one bag of ranch Doritos, two large bags of peanut M&Ms, one quart of hazelnut ice cream, one piece of plain cheesecake and six 20 ounce bottles of Coke. He was served the meal at 8:05 p.m.
Palmer reportedly slept less than 30 minutes Wednesday night, spending most of his time reading, writing notes and watching television.
Palmer was also offered a breakfast on Thursday morning of apple juice, grits, boiled eggs, margarine, white break, milk, coffee and sugar, which he declined.
Nine Ohio inmates are scheduled for execution through March 2014.
Palmer becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Ohio
and the 48th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999.
Palmer becomes the 28th condemned inmate to be put to death this year nit he
USA and the 1305th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17,
1977.
Source: AP, September 20, 2012
