USA/Ohio: Dritter Mensch mittels neuer Hinrichtungsmethode getötet

Der 37-jährige Mark B. wurde heute hingerichtet. Er war der dritte Mensch, der in Ohio mittels der neuen Hinrichtungsmethode - bestehend aus nur einem Injektionsmittel - getötet wurde. Das tödliche Medikament wurde um 10:40 Uhr verabreicht und um 10:49 Uhr wurde Brown für tot erklärt.

Brown gab kein letztes Statement ab, ehe die Hinrichtung vollzogen wurde. Als die Infusion anfing zu laufen, schloss der Mann seine Augen und gähnte anschließend. Anschließend konnte man nur noch einmal eine Bewegung ausmachen, ehe Brown starb.

Am 28. Januar 1994 ging B. mit einem Freund in ein Lebensmittelgeschäft in Youngtown. Zuvor hatten sie Marihuana geraucht und mit Valium versetzten Wein getrunken. Er erschoss, so die Gerichtsakten, einen Angestellten und den Ladeninhaber. Für den Mord am Inhaber bekam er die Todesstrafe.

Convenience-store killer executed by lethal injection

LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- After 16 years of litigation capped by a last-minute flurry of appeals in four courts, Mark Brown was executed this morning for gunning down a Youngstown store owner and an employee in Youngstown market.

Brown, 37, was declared dead at 10:49 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. Brown had no last words. He was the third person put to death in the nation using Ohio's one-drug lethal injection process.

The chemical started flowing at 10:40 a.m. At 10:41 Brown closed his eyes and yawned. He was silent and there was movement after that.

After the execution, Terri Rasul, sister of victim Isam Salman, said, "As sad as this may be, justice has been served. I hope this is a lesson learned by young people today to not do what Mark Brown did to my brother."

On the night of Jan. 28, 1994, Brown and a juvenile friend, Allen "Boonie" Thomas, were drinking wine laced with Valium and smoking cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana. At one point, the two young men talked about the movie, Menace II Society, in which assailants gun down two Asian convenience store employees.

Brown said he wanted to live out the scene from the movie, Thomas recalled.

Later that evening, he got his chance.

Brown and Thomas were driven to the Midway Market, an Arab-owned small convenience store in a rough neighborhood on Youngstown's north side. The two entered the store, made their purchases, and left. Then Brown went back inside, wearing a bandana or mask, according to witnesses.

Court records say Brown robbed the store and shot Hayder Al-Turk, a clerk, and Salman, the owner, as he crouched behind the counter. Both men died on the spot.

A few days later, after his arrest, Brown admitted to police that he had shot Al-Turk, but said he didn't remember shooting Salman. He said he "just flipped out" and attributed it to the Valium, saying "They make you go off."

Brown was convicted for both murders, but was sentenced to death only for killing Salman -- a crime he and his attorneys now claim was committed by Thomas.

The courts considered and rejected last-minute litigation stretching from a state appeals court in Youngstown and the Ohio Supreme Court, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Brown's public defender attorneys argued that he was innocent of the charge for which he was sentenced to death. They also claimed the case was riddled with false and recanted testimony and suppressed evidence.

But neither the courts nor Gov. Ted Strickland bought Brown's final arguments. Strickland turned down Brown's clemency plea late yesterday.

Brown was the second Ohioan executed this year and the 35th in the almost 11 years since capital punishment was resumed.