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USA. OHIO EXECUTES TRIPLE-MURDERER WHO ASKED FOR DEATH
August 8, 2006: the state of Ohio executed Darrell Ferguson, a triple murderer who stabbed and stomped his elderly victims and later begged his trial judge to be put to death.
Ferguson, 28, was pronounced dead at 10:21 am EDT (1421 GMT) following a lethal injection, said officials at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
"Mom, Dad, I love you both. I love you a lot. I wish you all the best," Ferguson said in his final statement.
Ferguson's murder spree began on Christmas Day in 2001 in Dayton, Ohio, where he attacked a relative, Thomas King, 61, with a kitchen knife and stole two televisions and a radio that he sold to buy crack cocaine.
The next day, Ferguson robbed and murdered an elderly couple who were his former neighbours.
Ferguson pleaded guilty and offered no evidence in his own defence, pleading with a judge: "I is asking you in my right state of mind, would you please find it in good will to give me the death penalty."
A state-ordered mental examination declared him competent.
"By his own words, Ferguson is a remorseless, sadistic and incorrigible killer," Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Resnick wrote in upholding the sentence.
The execution was Ohio's fourth this year and the state's 23rd since 1999 when it resumed executions. It was the 1,038th execution in the United States since capital punishment was restored in 1976. (Sources: Reuters, 08/08/2006)
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