COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 23 (UPI) -- State officials Tuesday prepared for the scheduled execution of Alton Coleman, convicted in a six-state crime spree that left at least seven people dead and 15 others raped, beaten and robbed.
Coleman, 46, has been sentenced to death in not only Ohio, but Indiana and Illinois as well, the only person in the United States under death sentences in three states. He is to die by lethal injection at the Mansfield Correctional Institution at 10 a.m. EDT Friday for the beating death of Marlene Walters at her Norwood, Ohio, home on July 13, 1984.
Coleman's attorneys on Tuesday lost a motion to prevent the execution from being broadcast by closed circuit television for survivors of his murderous 54-day spree, which ended in an Evanston, Ill., park where he was hiding out with his girlfriend and accomplice, Debra Denise Brown.
Brown's Ohio death sentence was commuted but she is under a death sentence in Indiana, although that state has not sought her return.
"We're not intending to broadcast this on Fox News," Ohio Assistant Attorney General James V. Canepa said. "It's kind of like having a hole in the wall for people to see."
Coleman and Brown were convicted of a series of abductions, rapes, murders and robberies that stretched through Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. At least 13 relatives of their victims plus a number of news media representatives will observe the execution.
Corrections Director Reginald Wilkinson said he decided to allow the families of Coleman's other victims to watch because the death penalty can be imposed only once.
Coleman's appeals for clemency have been rejected by the state Parole Board and the Ohio Supreme Court. Other motions are pending in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and before U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
In ruling 10-0 against clemency, the Parole Board last week cited "almost indescribable and irreparable damage to his victims" and Prosecutor Michael K. Allen has described Coleman as "pure evil."
Coleman attorney Dale Baich argued his client likely was brain-damaged at birth and suffered an abusive childhood, making him not responsible for his actions as an adult.
Coleman is the third of five children born to a Waukegan prostitute and was raised by his maternal grandmother. He was dubbed "Pissy" by playmates because of his tendency to wet himself.
Brown, 39, was 21 when she met Coleman. She was the fifth of 11 children and came from a respectable home.
The Coleman-Brown story began in the mid-1970s when Coleman kidnapped a 54-year-old woman from a Waukegan, Ill., shopping center, raped and robbed her. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and served just two years at Joliet prison. While imprisoned, he was accused of molesting another inmate. After his release, he was accused of rape again in 1976 and 1980. He was also suspected in the 1982 rape and strangling of a 15-year-old Waukegan girl.
In May 1984, he kidnapped a 9-year-old Kenosha, Wis., girl after befriending her mother, to begin his spree. Three more little girls were kidnapped in Gary, Ind., in June; one survived and to this day is still fearful of adult men. A Detroit woman disappeared from her home and in July, a Toledo, Ohio, mother and daughter were found dead in their home. The next victim was Walters, whose husband was severely beaten but survived.
Coleman was then placed on the FBI's most wanted list.
A series of kidnappings, rapes and robberies followed. On July 20, the day Coleman was arrested in Evanston, the body of Eugene Scott, 77, of Indianapolis, was found alongside a highway. Scott's car was recovered by Evanston police.
