High courts won't block Ohio execution

LUCASVILLE, Ohio, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- An Ohio death row inmate's request for a stay of execution was denied Monday by the Ohio and U.S. Supreme Courts, the public defender's office said.

Richard Cooey had claimed he was too obese to face lethal injection.

Amy Borrow, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Public Defender's Office, also said she did not anticipate any additional appeals filed before the Tuesday execution, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

Cooey's choice for his final repast was a T-bone steak with A-1 sauce, onion rings, french fries, hash browns, four eggs over-easy, toast and butter, bear claw pastries, a Mountain Dew and a pint of Rocky Road ice cream, the Dayton Daily News reported.

Cooey, who is 5-foot-7 and weighs 270 pounds, is to be executed by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Prison officials said they found usable veins when he arrived at the prison earlier in the day from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.

"He has been in a very good mood since his arrival here," said Andrea Carson, a state Corrections Department.

Cooey, now 41, was convicted of raping, beating and killing two sorority sisters, Wendy Offredo, 21, and Dawn McCreery, 20, 22 years ago.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has rejected Cooey's plea for clemency.

Co-defendant Clinton Dickens was sentenced to life in prison because he was a minor at the time of the killings.