Cincinati Enquirer  

William G. Zuern killed a jail guard with
 a homemake knife 20 years ago

A man was executed Tuesday for killing a jail guard who was about to search his cell 20 years ago for a homemade knife.

William G. Zuern, 45, was pronounced dead by injection at 10:04 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. His attorney, Kate McGarry, had decided against taking the typical step of asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution.

Zuern refused to talk to the prison staff before his execution and stuffed his ears with toilet paper so he couldn't hear them, said Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

At one point, Zuern removed the paper from his ears and asked a guard, "What time does all of this start?" Dean said.

When asked if he had any last words before execution, Zuern said, "Nope."

On Monday, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati rejected two appeals by Zuern. A 3-judge panel lifted a stay of execution issued earlier in the day, then a majority of judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted not to allow the full court to consider Zuern's appeal.

Earlier Monday, U.S. District Judge Walter Rice in Dayton ordered the stay to allow the appeals court more time to consider whether Zuern's death sentence is fair.

McGarry had argued that Zuern's lawyers didn't present evidence that that could have helped him when he was sentenced.

Gov. Bob Taft on Monday denied clemency, saying Zuern never showed remorse for the stabbing and committed other crimes during his incarceration.

On Friday, the appeals court overturned an order issued last month by Rice that the execution be delayed. Rice overturned Zuern's conviction in 2000, but the 6th Circuit reinstated it last July.

Zuern was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death in the June 9, 1984, stabbing death of jail officer Phillip Pence.

Zuern, formerly of Cincinnati, also is serving a life prison term for his guilty plea to fatally shooting a Cincinnati man.

He had been awaiting trial on that slaying when Hamilton County jail officials received a tip that Zuern had a homemade knife in his cell at the Community Correctional Institution, a Civil War-era prison in Cincinnati known as "the Workhouse."

Zuern was notified that officers were coming to search the cell for the weapon and when they arrived he stabbed Pence in the chest with a dagger he had fashioned out of a metal bucket handle, officers said.

At a hearing before sentencing, Zuern's lawyers read a statement from him that said he refused to "beg and crawl" for the jury to spare his life. He said he realized that if he offered no defense he could only be sentenced to death.

He declined to see his 2 sisters Tuesday before his execution, Dean said. No witnesses attended the execution for Zuern. Zuern did not have 1 visitor during his entire 20 year prison stay.

Pence's half sister and 2 deputies who worked with him, including one who witnessed the stabbing, watched the execution.

Zuern had a restless night and paced around his cell, Dean said.

Zuern also has requested that all his belongings be destroyed and that he be buried at state expense.

Zuern becomes the 4th condemned prisoner to be put to death this year in Ohio, and the 12th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999. He becomes the 4th prisoner from Hamilton County to be executed since the state lifted the execution ban in 1974.

Zuern becomes the 28th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 913th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.