OHIO: Harry Mitts Jr., who shot and killed man, Garfield Heights police officer in 1994, nears execution

Harry Mitts Jr.

LUCASVILLE, Ohio - Ohio is preparing to execute a white gunman who spewed racial slurs before fatally shooting a black man and a police officer in a 1994 rampage at his suburban Cleveland apartment complex. The lethal injection is the last before the state's supply of execution drug expires.

Sixty-one-year-old Harry Mitts Jr. is scheduled to die Wednesday at the state prison in Lucasville after years of acknowledging his crimes and saying he's repented.

Mitts was convicted of aggravated murder and attempted murder in the rampage against random neighbors and responding police officers. He killed John Bryant, a neighbor's black boyfriend, and a white Garfield Heights police sergeant, Dennis Glivar.

Mitts has been on constant watch heading into the 10 a.m. execution after two recent high-profile prison suicides. He arrived at the death house Tuesday morning.

The Ohio Parole Board was unanimous in its recommendation against clemency, advice followed by Republican Gov. John Kasich, who said Mitts "exhibited complete disregard for the lives of officers and innocent bystanders at the scene."

"That further tragedy did not result from the bedlam that Mitts created on August 14, 1994, is in many respects a miracle," its report said.

With clemency denied and his legal appeals exhausted, Mitts has been concentrating on spiritual matters on his final days, attorney Kelleher said.

"He is more concerned with the higher power right now than what those like myself or the state might or might not do," Kelleher said.

Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said Mitts was calm and cooperative on Tuesday.

The special meal he requested for Tuesday evening included steak with sautéed mushrooms, Caesar salad with ranch dressing, Italian bread, french fries, peach pie, butter pecan ice cream and Dr Pepper.

After Kasich denied Mitts mercy, Kelleher expressed disappointment that the state would insist on going ahead with Mitts' execution "in the face of botched executions, a spate of suicides and the public's decreasing support for the death penalty."

Source: NewsNet5, September 25, 2013

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