The "horrendous decision" that Daniel Wilson made 18 years ago came full circle this morning when he was executed for locking Carol Lutz in the trunk of her car and setting it on fire.
Wilson, 39, died at 10:33 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection of drugs at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. With Lutz's mother, father and brother looking on from a few feet away, Wilson was strapped to the lethal injection table where he made a final statement.
Wilson was the 1st man executed in Ohio this year and the 1st ever to die under a revised lethal injection protocol initiated by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in response to criticism of the process as being "flawed" in a recent court case.
The new protocol calls for 2 doses of sedative to be administered instead of just 1. That is followed by a paralytic drug and finally 1 that stops the heart.
The policy also requires to warden to determine if the condemned man is truly unconscious by calling his name and shaking and pinching his arm.
Wilson was convicted and sentenced to death for kidnapping and killing the 24-year-old Lutz with whom he'd been drinking at the Empire Bar in Elyria bar on the evening of May 3, 1991. After Lutz gave Wilson a ride home, he abducted her and locked her in the trunk of her black 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass.
The next morning, Wilson tried to set the car on fire, with Lutz still in the trunk, but the flames fizzled. He let her out briefly but ignored her pleas to let her go and forced her back in the trunk.
This time, the flames did not fail.
Wilson walked away and didn't look back.
Arson investigators estimated the temperature in the trunk may have reached 550 degrees, literally roasting Lutz alive.
In his clemency request to the Ohio Parole Board -- which was unanimously rejected -- Wilson said he regretted the "horrendous decision" he made to kill Lutz.
"I have spent every day of the last 18 years being sorry for what I did," Wilson wrote.
Courts at all levels affirmed Wilson's conviction and death sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his last-minute appeal yesterday, a day after Gov. Ted Strickland rejected his clemency request.
Wilson's execution was Ohio's 29th since resuming capital punishment in February 1999.
Wilson becomes the 31st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1167th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Sources: Columbus Dispatch and Rick Halperin, June 3, 2009
Wilson, 39, died at 10:33 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection of drugs at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. With Lutz's mother, father and brother looking on from a few feet away, Wilson was strapped to the lethal injection table where he made a final statement.
Wilson was the 1st man executed in Ohio this year and the 1st ever to die under a revised lethal injection protocol initiated by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in response to criticism of the process as being "flawed" in a recent court case.
The new protocol calls for 2 doses of sedative to be administered instead of just 1. That is followed by a paralytic drug and finally 1 that stops the heart.
The policy also requires to warden to determine if the condemned man is truly unconscious by calling his name and shaking and pinching his arm.
Wilson was convicted and sentenced to death for kidnapping and killing the 24-year-old Lutz with whom he'd been drinking at the Empire Bar in Elyria bar on the evening of May 3, 1991. After Lutz gave Wilson a ride home, he abducted her and locked her in the trunk of her black 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass.
The next morning, Wilson tried to set the car on fire, with Lutz still in the trunk, but the flames fizzled. He let her out briefly but ignored her pleas to let her go and forced her back in the trunk.
This time, the flames did not fail.
Wilson walked away and didn't look back.
Arson investigators estimated the temperature in the trunk may have reached 550 degrees, literally roasting Lutz alive.
In his clemency request to the Ohio Parole Board -- which was unanimously rejected -- Wilson said he regretted the "horrendous decision" he made to kill Lutz.
"I have spent every day of the last 18 years being sorry for what I did," Wilson wrote.
Courts at all levels affirmed Wilson's conviction and death sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his last-minute appeal yesterday, a day after Gov. Ted Strickland rejected his clemency request.
Wilson's execution was Ohio's 29th since resuming capital punishment in February 1999.
Wilson becomes the 31st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1167th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Sources: Columbus Dispatch and Rick Halperin, June 3, 2009
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