Satan worshiper executed for triple murders
Pastor Dale Morgan
Satan worshiper executed for triple murders*
Wednesday, August 9, 2006 Posted: 1957 GMT (0357 HKT)
LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- A man who said he worshipped Satan and enjoyed
killing three people, stabbing and beating them and stomping on them
with steel-toed boots, was executed Tuesday.
Darrell Ferguson, 28, the youngest person put to death in Ohio since
1962, died by injection at 10:21 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional
Facility.
He had asked for the death penalty and chose not to pursue appeals,
which could have delayed his execution for years.
Ferguson was the second inmate executed using the state's new lethal
injection protocol, adopted after an execution in May was delayed while
prison staff struggled to find a useable vein on that inmate, who asked
them to find another way to kill him.
Officials said Ferguson's veins were closely examined before his
execution, and the guidelines called for two injection sites to be
prepared plus a new method of ensuring veins stay open.
He was convicted of three counts of aggravated murder in the Christmas
Day killing of Thomas King, 61, in 2001 and the deaths the next day of
Arlie Fugate, 68, and his wife Mae, 69. King was disabled and used
crutches, Arlie Fugate had cancer and Mae Fugate took meals to
wheelchair-using neighbors.
The victims let Ferguson into their homes in Dayton because they knew
him. Ferguson's mother had been married to King's brother, and
Ferguson's family had once lived near the Fugates.
Ferguson committed the murders after getting a two-day pass from a drug
treatment program he had been ordered to attend following a burglary
conviction.
At his sentencing, he taunted the victims' families, saying he
worshipped Satan, enjoyed the killings, had no remorse, and, if released
from prison, would pick up where he left off.
Defense attorney Victor Hodge said Ferguson's behavior might have been a
ploy to make sure he was sentenced to death so he could avoid spending
the rest of his life in prison.