William G. Zuern, Executed In Ohio
Bill Schenley
http://www.cincypost.com/2004/06/08/zuernfin060804.html
William G. Zuern, formerly of Price Hill, died at 10:04 this
morning for the murder of a Hamilton County jailer.
Zuern was sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of
Hamilton County corrections officer Phillip Pence 20 years
ago tomorrow.
The 45-year-old died six minutes after two lethal drugs --
pancuronium bromide to stop his breathing and potassium
chloride to stop his heartbeat -- began flowing into his
veins.
His death was a peaceful one. His chest heaved several
times, and his lips parted with slightly labored breathing
for several minutes before his breathing stopped forever.
Zuern's face and shaved head turned lightly purple before
prison officials drew a curtain between Zuern and the
witnesses at
10:03 a.m. After a prison doctor performed a quick
examination, the curtain was reopened and Warden James
Haviland drew a microphone to his mouth and said, "Time of
death 10:04 a.m."
U.S. District Judge Walter Rice, ruling in Dayton, had
issued a stay in the execution order Monday, but that was
vacated by a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of
Appeals in Cincinnati. The full appeals court then rejected
a request from Zuern's attorneys that it intervene in the
case. Attorneys did not at tempt to appeal to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which would have been Zuern's only hope to
live another day.
Zuern's death was not enough for co-workers and relatives of
his victims.
"William Zuern Jr. went too easy today. I believe that he
should have died the way Phil died," said Jeff Roush, a
Hamilton County sheriff's deputy who witnessed the murder of
his colleague and friend, Phillip Pence.
"This case was nothing more than putting a mad dog to
sleep," he said. Rousch was unhappy that Zuern never met his
glare.
"I think he just cowarded his way out. We just glared at him
(during his execution) but he wouldn't look at us," he said.
Rousch's thirst for vengeance was shared by Joseph Burton, a
nother coworker who witnessed Pence's murder, and family
members of Zuern's two murder victims -- Pence and Gregory
Earls, who Zuern fatally shot. "It was too easy on him. It
was too easy," said Sherry Behler,
Pence's half-sister, after witnessing the execution. Juanita
Earls, the mother of Earls, Zuern's first victim, said after
the execution, "My son was murdered by William Zuern. I
waited 20 years to see justice done for my son. For that,
I'm grateful. He died more merciful than my son and Phillip
Pence died. He was an animal."
Zuern was placed on his back on a padded table to be prepped
for his death. Technicians placed shunts into both of his
outstretched arms as Zuern alternately closed his eyes and
narrowly opened them. His face remained stoic throughout the
process, which took several minutes and caused him to bleed
visibly out of his right arm. He was dressed in a
prison-issued white shirt, blue pants with red stripes
running down each side, and white socks. He wore his own
brown hiking boots.
His head was shaven, and he wore a thick beard without a
moustache.
Zuern complied with every command, lifting his hands to be
placed in handcuffs before he was led into the death
chamber.
The chamber was dimly lit with a tiled floor and cinder
block walls painted white.
Warden Haviland picked up a microphone and asked, "Mr.
Zuern, do you have any last statement you would like to
make?"
"Nope," was Zuern's terse reply as he continued to stare at
the ceiling.
He never turned to see witnesses in either of two small
rooms that were separated by from the death chamber by
windows.
Haviland gave a secret command at 9:58 a.m. to begin
injecting the drugs, and two officials turned on IVs to
begin pouring drugs into his veins. Only one of the two
cocktails contained the lethal drugs, and neither operator
knew which one was real and which was harmless, according to
Dean.
Within two minutes, Zuern's breathing became faint, and
within three, breathing was no longer visible. By 10:01, his
head began turning purple.
After Zuern was pronounced dead, witnesses were led back
through a courtyard where a black Cadillac hearse awaited.
Zuern was transported to a local funeral home and will be
buried in a state-run cemetery adjacent to a prison in
Chillicothe. His family did not have the means to arrange a
private burial, Dean said.
Zuern, who had been held on Death Row in Mansfield, arrived
in Lucasville shortly after 1 p.m. Monday.
He ate his last dinner about four hours later - mashed
potatoes and gravy, lasagna, macaroni and cheese, garlic
bread, corn, chocolate milk and cherry cheese cake.
This morning he had four pancakes, cereal, orange juice and
milk. He was offered a shower, but declined.
He steadfastly refuses to communicate with the preparation
team. The team, designed to answer the condemned's questions
and take care of physical needs, said Zuern took extreme
measures to avoid them.
"He has gone as far as putting toilet paper in his ears," a
spokeswoman said this morning. He has also turned his back
to the counselors, turned his face to the wall and stared at
the ceiling, she said.
Two of his sisters, Ruby Simpkins and Ester Zuern, arrived
today but he refused to see them.
He spent a restless night Monday, falling asleep at about 10
p.m., but waking up several times throughout the evening.
During his 20-year prison stay, Zuern never allowed a single
visit by family or friends. Only his attorneys saw him, and
he made no exception on the last day of his life.
The sisters, both of the Dayton area, were turned away from
the prison.
Prison officials said he would meet with no spiritual
adviser today. He had no witnesses on his behalf at the
execution.
"He doesn't want any witnesses," said Andrea Dean, a
spokeswoman for the Ohio Department for Rehabilitation and
Correction. "Nobody will be there."
Pence's family had three witnesses: Behler, his half-sister,
Rousch and Burton.
At Zuern's request, his last effects will be destroyed :
five books, a radio, a typewriter, a fan, envelopes,
toiletries, hot sauce, cocoa butter and garlic butter.
Outside the prison, death penalty opponents gathered and
prayed. They set up signs of protest and drawings and
photographs of previously executed Ohioans.
Tina Bush, a member of the Cleveland Coalition Against the
Death Penalty, has been active protesting capital punishment
since 1999, when Ohio reinstated its death penalty.
"We are against the execution of any people. I do not
believe that because a person takes a life that the state
should take another life. Two wrongs do not make a right,
and all killing is wrong," she said.
Bush said her opposition to state-sanctioned killing is not
meant as any lack of sympathy for victims.
"Phillip Pence should not have died at William Zuern's hand.
William Zuern should not die at the state's hand," her
hand-made sign read.
The Rev. Neil Kookoothe, of St. Clarence Church in North
Olmstead, said he was there to be a witness for Zuern's
fellow Death Row inmates who the Catholic priest counsels in
Mansfield.
In a statement issued Monday, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, who was a
Hamilton County commissioner when Pence was killed, noted:
"Mr. Zuern has never shown remorse for his crimes, and
during his incarceration has engaged in other crimes and
conduct violations, including the kidnapping and threatened
murder of two corrections officers."
Taft noted Zuern, declined to participate in the clemency
process, and his attorneys did not attend the clemency
hearings.
After thoroughly reviewing Zuern's criminal record and
convictions and recommendations from the Ohio Parole Board,
county prosecutor's office and sheriff's office, "I can find
no compelling reason to grant clemency," Taft said.
Messages left Monday for Zuern's attorneys in Dayton and New
Mexico were not returned.
After Zuern was convicted of Pence's aggravated murder, he
had his defense attorneys read a statement in which he said
it was his opinion that there was "no testimony I or anyone
else could offer which would have any effect on this jury."
Zuern said he realized if he offered no mitigation evidence,
the jury can come to but one decision, and that is death by
electrocution.
"I have no death wish, and I do not wish to die," his
statement added. "However it is not my nature to beg or
crawl." His attitudes toward the sentence since his arrival
at Lucasville, where Ohio conducts all its executions, were
not known, prison officials said. Zuern has not talked to
prison officials about the matter.
Rice overturned Zuern's conviction in 2000, but the
Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit reinstated it in July.
Zuern also is serving a life prison term for his guilty plea
to fatally shooting a Lower Price Hill man. He had been
awaiting trial on that slaying when county jail officials
received a tip that Zuern had a homemade knife. Zuern was
alerted that officers were coming to search the cell for the
weapon and when they arrived, he stabbed Pence in the chest
with a dagger-like piece of metal he had fashioned from a
bucket handle, officers said.
Zuern is the fourth Ohioan executed this year, preceded by
Lewis Williams of Cuyahoga County and Glenn Roe and William
Wickline, both of Franklin County.
There are now 208 inmates on death row in Mansfield,
including one woman. Eleven people have been executed by the
state since the death penalty was reinstated in February
1999.
More than half the condemned are black, according to the
states figures. Blacks number 104, with 98 whites, three
Hispanics and four whose race was listed as other on Death
Row.
Barry Hammond
Rich Clancey
>good riddance ... he was a total scumbag.
I still think an easy death is too good for these guys. Make
them live in a cage for decades with no hope, and force them to think
about what they did.
--
rich clancey
The troublesome ones in a family are usually either
the wits or the idiots. -- George Eliot
