Killer didn't go quietly, quickly

[The Straight Story]

Killer didn't go quietly, quickly
Strapped to table, man prays during his last 17 minutes

LUCASVILLE, Ohio For 17 minutes yesterday, condemned killer Michael Beuke held death at bay.

From 10:27 to 10:44 a.m., Beuke recited the rosary of the Roman Catholic Church while strapped to the lethal-injection table at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. Warden Donald R. Morgan held a microphone inches from Beuke's face so witnesses in a nearby room could hear his last words.

Family members of two of his victims watched in silent frustration as Beuke, crying and clutching rosary beads in one hand, went through the five Glorious Mysteries, the Apostles' Creed, several accompanying prayers and " Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee..." repeated 53 times.

A Catholic priest sat nearby, silently saying the devotion along with Beuke.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/05/14/copy/killer-didnt-go-quietly-quickly.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

[cliffordu]

1. So. How did they make him be quiet??

[Arkansas Granny]

3. According to the article, they let him finish his prayers before they started the drugs.

After Beuke finished, Morgan gave a signal and the killing chemical, thiopental sodium, began flowing into Beuke's veins.

At 10:53 a.m., nine minutes after his final "Amen," Beuke was dead.

[Vickers]

2. "Beuke, 48, of Hamilton County, was executed for the June 1, 1983, abduction and slaying of..."

"...Robert Craig, 27, who had picked up the hitchhiker while on I-275."

*snip*

"'I was pregnant at the time he was murdered,' she (Susan Craig) said of her husband."

*snip*

"Dawn Wahoff, daughter of Wayne Wahoff, who was paralyzed after Beuke shot him in the face and back, also was a witness, along with her brother, Paul."

[Arkansas Granny]

In addition to Craig and Wahoff, Beuke shot and wounded Bruce Graham, 34,

of West Harrison, Ind., after Graham picked him up hitchhiking in June 1983.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. When conservative catholics in this country oppose the death penalty at the same level

they oppose abortion, I might, perhaps, maybe begin to take them seriously. They are hypocritical leeches who can't even follow their own doctrine, except where it matches the dictates of secular politics.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. I know Quakers who do oppose both fervently

They have my respect though I disagree with them

[mitchum]

5. And the backstory...

Beuke, 48, of Hamilton County, was executed for the June 1, 1983, abduction and slaying of Robert Craig, 27, who had picked up the hitchhiker while on I-275.

Susan Craig, the victim's widow, watched the execution from an observation room, separated by glass but less than 20 feet from Beuke.

"It was long," she said later. "But this was his last couple of minutes on Earth.

"I was pregnant at the time he was murdered," she said of her husband. "Now, we can talk about Bob and have happy memories and not talk about Michael Beuke.

Dawn Wahoff, daughter of Wayne Wahoff, who was paralyzed after Beuke shot him in the face and back, also was a witness, along with her brother, Paul.

"You're stalling," Dawn Wahoff said she thought when Beuke launched into his prayers.

In addition to Craig and Wahoff, Beuke shot and wounded Bruce Graham, 34, of West Harrison, Ind., after Graham picked him up hitchhiking in June 1983

[catnhatnh]

7. He was killed-or executed if you prefer, by the State...

and he may have deliberately delayed it by just over a quarter hour. So dance like ghouls on his grave and complain about he "got over" on the system. Or if you want smash down on a religion I once belong to. I'm sure you are all superior to both it's performance AND it's ideals...