LUCASVILLE, Ohio, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- An Ohio man convicted of raping, beating and killing two women two decades ago was executed Tuesday by lethal injection at the state prison in Lucasville.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office said Richard Cooey died just before 10:30 a.m., WKYC-TV, Cleveland, reported.
His last appeals to the Ohio and U.S. supreme courts denied, Cooey spent the night before his execution having his last meal and watching television, WKYC said. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland also rejected Cooey's appeal for clemency.
Cooey, who is 5-foot-7 and weighs 270 pounds, argued he was too fat to die by lethal injection.
He was executed at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Prison officials said they found usable veins. He was transferred to the Lucasville facility from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.
Cooey, 41, was convicted of raping, beating and killing two University of Akron sorority sisters, Wendy Offredo, 21, and Dawn McCreery, 20, in 1986.
Co-defendant Clinton Dickens was sentenced to life in prison because he was a minor at the time of the killings.
Cooey is the first Ohio inmate to be executed since May 2007, and the 27th since 1999.
