Wednesday, February 12, 2003

OHIO LAST MEAL
RICHARD FOX
February 12, 2003


Dead like a Fox....

Last Meal: a cheeseburger with lettuce, pickle, onion, tomato, ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise along with french fries and a Pepsi. He did not eat his breakfast of coffee, apple juice, toast, dry cereal and peanut butter and jelly

The skinny: Fox was convicted of stabbing and strangling a college student 14 years ago after luring her to a fake job interview. He set up a fake job allegedly selling restaurant supplies and met her in a hotel lobby. Keckler then got into Fox's car, supposedly to check out businesses where supplies could be sold. Her body was discovered four days later in a ditch.

Legal machinations: Fox's attorneys had argued his sentence should have been changed to life in prison because he did not intend to kill Keckler, and that he tricked women only to meet them. His attorneys argued that Fox was not the ``worst of the worst'' criminals for whom the death penalty is intended.

Final words and such: Fox, a heavyset, balding man, entered the death chamber at 10 a.m., wearing blue prison-issued pants with one red stripe down each leg, a white cotton shirt and brown shoes. He made no final statement. Fox had spent the hours leading up to the execution with family members and he was upbeat.

Field Trip!!! Students from Roman Catholic high schools in Cleveland and Cincinnati joined anti-death penalty protesters outside the prison. School officials said 125 students made the trip.

Factoids: Fox had confessed to the killing. It was the state's sixth execution since it resumed executions in 1999.
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The injection Fox was to receive consists of sodium pentothal, which induces unconsciousness; pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant that stops breathing; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.