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OHIO (USA): MAN EXECUTED FOR 1984 MURDERS
May 17, 2011: An Ohio man was executed in the morning after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, officials said.
Daniel Lee Bedford was put to death by lethal injection for a double homicide in Cincinnati in 1984, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. His defense attorneys had argued for clemency, citing dementia and mental retardation.
A federal judge had granted Bedford a stay of execution Monday, but this was lifted by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal.
Bedford was convicted of shooting to death his ex-girlfriend Gwen Toepfert and her boyfriend John Smith.
Bedford told the state parole board in March that he does not remember the slayings.
Bedford was the 16th person executed in the United States so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. At 63, he was the oldest person executed in Ohio since the state resumed administering capital punishment in 1999. (Sources: Reuters, 17/05/2011)
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