John Byrd � 38 anni -  sceglie la sedia elettrica.  L�esecuzione � prevista per mercoled� 12. Il Governatore ha negato la grazia.

 IL MATTINO � 10/09/01

�L�iniezione? Preferisco morire sulla sedia elettrica�

MARCO BARDAZZI

New York Se il conto alla rovescia non verr� fermato, John Byrd se ne andr� mercoled� prossimo nel modo peggiore: morendo su una sedia elettrica centenaria che non viene usata da 38 anni e che l'Ohio sperava di non utilizzare mai pi�. Per il condannato sar� un modo di proclamare anche in punto di morte la sua innocenza, mettendo in imbarazzo un intero Stato degli Usa. Dopo una lunga battaglia legale, Byrd ha ottenuto di poter morire scegliendo il metodo pi� doloroso, invece della consueta iniezione letale. Incapace fino ad oggi di dimostrare la sua asserita innocenza, il detenuto, 37 anni, ha deciso di concedersi una vendetta estrema contro lo Stato. L'Ohio permette ai detenuti di scegliere tra iniezione e sedia, ma nessuno pensava che ci sarebbe stato chi avrebbe optato ancora per la scarica elettrica. Byrd ha turbato molte coscienze. Il Parlamento dell'Ohio, sulla scia del caso Byrd, ha deciso di rivedere la legge per mettere in soffitta la sedia elettrica, ma � improbabile che riesca ad agire prima che il detenuto sia giustiziato. I legislatori si riuniranno alla vigilia dell'esecuzione: i tempi per varare una nuova legge sembrano troppo stretti. Byrd e il suo difensore contavano proprio su questo turbamento dell'opinione pubblica e del governatore per fermare il boia. �Byrd ritiene che, se proprio vogliono metterlo a morte, dovranno farlo nel modo pi� difficile possibile: non se ne andr� quietamente�, spiega Bodiker, che sta cercando di percorrere le ultime strade per bloccare l'esecuzione. Byrd � accusato di aver ucciso nel 1983 un commesso di una drogheria di Cincinnati, Monte Tewksbury, un padre di famiglia che lavorava di notte per pagare la scuola alla figlia. L'assassinio avvenne durante una rapina alla quale Byrd prese parte con altri due uomini, ma il condannato ha sempre negato. Dopo il processo, uno dei complici ammise di essere lui il responsabile dell'omicidio, ma la Corte d'Appello e lo Stato fino ad ora hanno respinto ogni richiesta di revisione del caso. Il direttore dell'amministrazione penitenziaria dell'Ohio, Reginald Wilkinson, � inquieto di fronte alla prospettiva di dover utilizzare la vecchia sedia elettrica del carcere: ha 104 anni. La paura, in Ohio, � che accada a Byrd ci� che � successo nel 1997 in Florida quando il corpo del condannato Pedro Medina and� in fiamme.

September 10 

Killer's Request for Electric Chair Stirs Debate

By Bob Weston

CINCINNATI  - Ohio officials readied the state's electric chair on Monday for what could be its first use in nearly 40 years -- the execution of a convicted killer who chose the chair over a lethal injection to focus attention on the cruelty of capital punishment.

 John Byrd, 37, was scheduled to die at 10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. He will be strapped, at his request, to a chair that has not been used in an execution since 1963.

 The chair, renovated in 1992, has been tested with a device that duplicate's the resistance of a human body and is ready to be used, a corrections official said on Monday.

 Byrd, who was convicted of killing a convenience store clerk during a robbery in the Cincinnati area in 1983, has until two hours before his scheduled execution to change his mind and elect instead to die by lethal injection.

 Byrd claims he is innocent and his lawyers were still working on last-minute appeals. If he does die, one of them recently told the Columbus Dispatch newspaper, ``he does not want to go quietly into the night.''

 His chances of avoiding death were running out. Ohio Gov. Bob Taft denied his clemency request on Monday, saying 23 stages of appeals had affirmed his conviction.

 Byrd's choice of electrocution over lethal injection, which has become the most common method of execution in the United States, was to protest the death penalty, underscore his claims of innocence and confront his executioners and witnesses with an ugly death.

 According to the Death Penalty Information Center, lethal injection has become the preferred method for U.S. executions. The dose of deadly drugs is usually silent and largely without incident.

 The last electrocution in the United States, that of Michael Clagett, occurred in Virginia on July 6, 2000. The 32 executions that followed that year and the 48 that have taken place so far in 2001 were all by lethal injection.

 But 11 states other than Ohio still provide for electrocution, mostly as an alternative or a last-stand backup should lethal injection become illegal. Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Only Alabama and Nebraska still retain the electric chair as the sole method of execution.

The death penalty is under a scrutiny not seen in the United States since it was reintroduced in 1976. Illinois has suspended all executions pending a review prompted by disclosures that innocent men wound up on death row.

 The death penalty center says 73 death row inmates have been exonerated since 1973.

 An appeals court recently ordered a new trial for a Texas man whose court-appointed lawyer was said to have slept through much of his murder trial. And Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (news - web sites) said in a recent speech that serious questions were being raised about whether the death penalty was being fairly administered.

 The death penalty center on its web site -- http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org -- has documented what it calls ''botched'' executions, many of them involving electrocutions where flames jumped from a prisoner's body or multiple doses of electricity were required to cause death. H

- Halperin�s news

OHIO: Governor denies Byrd clemency request

Gov. Bob Taft on Monday denied clemency for John W. Byrd Jr., who is scheduled to be executed in what would be Ohio's 1st electrocution in 38 years.

 Byrd, who says he is innocent of the murder that led to his death sentence, still has an appeal pending to overturn his conviction and stop his execution, scheduled for Wednesday.

 The governor followed the recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board, which voted 10-1 Aug. 23 against clemency. The board said statements by an accomplice exonerating Byrd of the slaying lacked "any credibility whatsoever."

 Taft said he had reviewed the trial record and appeals, which so far have been denied, and took into account Byrd's claim of innocence.

 "I can find no reasonable or compelling reason to disagree with these very thorough evaluations of Mr. Byrd's case," the governor said in a statement.

 Hamilton County Prosecutor Michael Allen, whose office won Byrd's 1983 conviction, said he was gratified by the governor's decision.

 "I can't speak for the governor but I have to think he was not impressed by the flurry of affidavits that the public defender concealed over the years," Allen said.

 Ohio Public Defender David Bodiker, whose office represents Byrd, did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

 The execution of Byrd, 37, would be Ohio's 3rd execution since 1963. He has said he chose the electric chair over lethal injection to illustrate the brutality of capital punishment.

Byrd says an accomplice in a Cincinnati convenience store robbery stabbed Monte Tewksbury, a 40-year-old Procter & Gamble Co. employee who was moonlighting as a clerk to pay for his daughter's education.

Byrd's lawyers wanted Taft to commute the sentence to life in prison. The governor also denied clemency to the last two men executed in Ohio, Wilford Berry in February 1999 and Jay D. Scott in June.

 Byrd's attorneys acknowledge their client took part in the robbery but say that under state law, he cannot be executed because he wasn't the principal offender. The maximum sentence an accomplice in the case could have received would have been life in prison.

 Byrd's sister Kim Hamer and several religious and human-rights organizations appealed to Taft to commute Byrd's sentence and to put a moratorium on the death penalty in Ohio.

 In January, Byrd's lawyers introduced an 11-year-old document in which one of Byrd's accomplices, John Brewer, said he and not Byrd stabbed Tewksbury. Byrd's lawyers also produced an 8-year-old document in which the other accomplice implied that Byrd was innocent.

 Prosecutors denounced both claims, and produced their own interviews with the 2nd accomplice, William Woodall, conducted shortly before Woodall died in prison of cancer earlier this year. Woodall said Byrd was the killer, according to the documents.

 Taft said a review of Byrd's case and his alleged behavior in prison -- he has been charged with 20 major rules violations including assaults -- convinced him that Byrd should be denied clemency.

 "Nothing in Mr. Byrd's prison record suggests any serious effort on his part to rehabilitate himself or to atone for the crime he committed," Taft said.

 On Aug. 21, the 1st Ohio District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati denied Byrd's request that it overturn a trial court judge's dismissal of his innocence claim. Byrd appealed that decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. The request is pending in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

 In July, Ohio prisons Director Reginald Wilkinson urged the state to retire the 104-year-old electric chair, saying possible malfunctions could be too stressful for prison staff members.

 The Legislature is due back from summer recess on Tuesday, but majority Republican leaders say the issue likely won't be a priority this year.