Protesters speak out against Ohio executions

Richard Harris, 65, a member of St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Youngstown, was among about 20 protesters speaking out against the death penalty in Ohio. Saturday’s protest was held at the One Hundred and Twenty Church of God in Christ on Coitsville Hubbard Road, right beside the Supermax prison, where most of Ohio’s death row inmates are held. Photo by Ron Selak Jr.

YOUNGSTOWN - Beverly Terry has a deep interest in putting a stop to executions in Ohio: Her son is on death row.

She admits what happened that June morning in 1996 was terrible - a 3-year-old Youngstown girl killed in a drive-by shooting - but she doesn't want to see her son, Sidney Cornwell, die for the crime.

''To me, the death penalty should be done away with,'' Terry, 56, of Youngstown said. ''Two wrongs don't make a right.''

Terry was among about 20 anti-death penalty protesters on Saturday at the One Hundred and Twenty Church of God in Christ - beside the Supermax prison on Coitsville Hubbard Road in Youngstown, where most of Ohio's death row inmates are held - calling for an end to executions in Ohio.

According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's Web site, as of Sept. 23, there are 167 inmates that have been sentenced to death.

Most are housed at the Youngstown prison with the rest being kept at Mansfield Correctional Institution. One woman, Donna Roberts of Howland, the only female on death row in Ohio, is at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

''Give them life (in prison), but don't kill them,'' said Theresa Lyons, whose grandson is on death row, convicted of an aggravated murder charge in the 1997 shooting death of an Ashtabula police officer.

Lyons says her grandson Odraye G. Jones, 33, maintains his innocence. He's been on death row since the 1998 conviction.

''I just don't want my grandson to be another victim to be executed that was innocent,'' she said.

Richard Harris, a member of St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Youngstown, was there as an extension of his church, which wants to see a stop in state executions.

''It's a moral issue,'' said Harris, 65. ''It's not an issue of being able to shoot someone in the right vein. I'm against all execution.''

In Ohio, executions are on hold now that a federal judge has issued a stay until the state develops new protocol on its lethal injection procedure. The legal move came after the botched execution of Romell Broom, convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 14-year old girl in 1984.

Technicians couldn't locate suitable veins on Broom through which to administer lethal drugs.

The decision also might affect the execution of local death row inmate Kenneth Biros, convicted in the 1991 slaying and dismemberment of Tami Engstrom, 22, of Brookfield, after he offered to drive her home from a bar Feb. 7, 1991.

A clemency hearing for Biros is set for Monday.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of developing new protocol for injections, Ohio last Wednesday set new execution dates for two inmates, May 13 for Michael Beuke, 47, convicted of the 1983 murder of Robert Craig, a man he met while hitchhiking on Interstate 275 in southwest Ohio; and June 10 for Richard Nields, 59, sentenced to die for the 1997 death of his girlfriend, 59-year-old Patricia Newsome, at their home in Finneytown in southwest Ohio.

rselak@tribtoday.com
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