INDIANA - Fort Wayne man receives lethal injection

Condemned for killing 2 men during a robbery, Kevin L. Hough was executed this morning.

Ending 17 years of appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Hough's final appeal Thursday and refused to stop his execution.

Hough, 43, received a lethal injection this morning just after midnight at the Indiana State Prison. He was convicted of the 1985 murders of two Fort Wayne men.

"I hope the victims' families get some measure of satisfaction," Hough said shortly before he was put to death. "Hopefully, their grief won't be as much."

Prison officials said Hough was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m.

He spent Thursday afternoon talking with his daughter, mother, grandmother and aunts.

"He actually has dealt with this whole situation with great dignity," said John Stainthorp, Hough's attorney, adding that his client "is obviously concerned (that) he didn't get adequate representation of justice."

Hough expected to spend his last hours with a Catholic priest.

Wednesday, Gov. Frank O'Bannon denied Hough's request for his death sentence to be commuted to life in prison.

In 1987, Hough was sentenced to die for killing Ted Bosler and Martin "Gene" Rubrake, longtime Fort Wayne roommates.

Those crimes came soon after another man died at Hough's hands. Prosecutors said he used a cattle prod to torture Antoni Bartkowiak before shooting him. That killing helped prosecutors convince a judge that the death sentence was appropriate.

6 hours before the scheduled execution, heavy rain blew across Indianapolis, drenching the governor's residence at 46th and Meridian Streets and a half-dozen protesters gathered outside.

"The way we look at it, there's a man in Michigan City waiting to die a violent death," said Charlie Kafoure of the Indiana Information Center on the Abolition of Capital Punishment. "We can afford to stand in the rain."

O'Bannon, however, wasn't there, having moved while the building is renovated. The demonstrators said it was symbolically correct to protest there; O'Bannon has declined to stop all previous executions carried out during his time in office.

"It's wrong to kill for the sake of killing," said Steve Schutte, a public defender. "It's wrong that Mr. Bosler and Mr. Rubrake were killed, and it's wrong to kill Mr. Hough."

Hough's current attorneys argue that their client received abysmal legal representation from 2 part-time public defenders.

But state and federal courts disagreed, affirming Hough's death sentence.

Hough maintains his innocence in all 3 murders.

Prosecutors maintain the following:

On Nov. 6, 1985, Hough and his 16-year-old brother, Duane Lapp, went to the roommates' house. Hough helped Rubrake unload groceries from his car, then followed him into the basement.

He pulled a .45-caliber pistol from his shoulder holster and told Bosler and Rubrake to lie on the floor. He shot Rubrake in the chest and Bosler while he was lying down. When Rubrake appeared to move, Hough shot him in the face.

Before leaving the home, Hough took a beer can and remote control he thought might have his fingerprints and removed several rings from the bodies of Bosler and Rubrake. As he left, he stepped on Rubrake's face.

After the killings, Hough dropped his brother off and then almost immediately moved to Indianapolis.

11 days earlier, Hough and 2 other men went to rob a home. Bartkowiak answered the door.

Hough stuck a handgun into Bartkowiak's abdomen, made him lie on the floor and handcuffed his hands behind his back.

After ransacking the house, Hough used a cattle prod to torture and question Bartkowiak about possible cocaine that was in the house.

He then took Bartkowiak to the basement and shot him in the back of the head.

Hough was convicted of murdering Bartkowiak and sentenced to 60 years.

Hough becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Indiana and the 10th overall since Indiana resumed capital punishment in 1981.

Hough becomes the 30th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 850th overall since the state resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)