2007: Christopher Newton
May 24th, 2011 Headsman
After Christopher Newton’s death in Lucasville, Ohio by lethal injection on this day in 2007, his attorney read a prepared last statement that apologized for the murder of a fellow inmate: “If I could take it back, I would.”
But the evidence of the “bizarre” execution says Newton was right where he wanted to be.
From the time the obese career criminal (pdf) garroted his cellmate in 2001,* he cooperated with investigators only to the extent that cooperation would grease the wheels of that so-called machinery of death. The entire thing was engineered to get Newton his last parole.
It still took him over five years to land on a gurney, but if you think that’s inefficient, get a load of the execution itself.
For going on two hours, the injection team poked and prodded at Newton’s veins in vain, trying to squeeze a lethal shunt into its gargantuan subject.
“We have told the team to take their time,” read a sign that a prison spokesperson held up in the hush-hush viewing chamber an hour into this discomfiting procedure. “His size is creating a problem.”
Minutes later, the 19-stone condemned man got a bathroom break during his own execution.
So far as anyone could see, the delay was anything but agony for Newton, who was generally observed smiling, laughing, and chatting it up with the prison personnel who were struggling to kill him. Finally, they managed to do it — an achievement which Ohio has latterly demonstrated is by no means a given.
* And allegedly drank some of Jason Brewer’s blood to boot, though this claim proceeding from a man who was intentionally pursuing a death sentence merits skepticism.
On this day..
- 1726: Étienne-Benjamin Deschauffours - 2020
- 1918: A day in the death penalty around the U.S. - 2019
- 1989: Stephen McCoy, botched - 2018
- 1878: A day in the death penalty around the U.S. - 2017
- 1935: Tully McQuate, "If I hang, I hang" - 2016
- 2014: Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, billionaire - 2015
- 1871: Archbishop Georges Darboy, Paris Commune hostage - 2014
- 1872: John Presswood Jr., the last legal hanging in DeKalb County - 2013
- 1944: Admiral Inigo Campioni - 2012
- 1725: Jonathan Wild, Thief-Taker General and Receiver of Stolen Goods - 2010
- 1980: Kim Jaegyu, intelligence chief - 2009
- 1917: Dr. Arthur Waite, the Playboy Poisoner - 2008
Entry Filed under: 21st Century,Botched Executions,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Gallows Humor,Lethal Injection,Murder,Ohio,Ripped from the Headlines,USA,Volunteers
Tags: 2000s, 2007, christopher newton, jason brewer, may 24, obesity, suicide by cop
