LUCASVILLE, Ohio, March 16 (UPI) -- An Ohio inmate who tried to commit suicide a week ago was executed Tuesday at the state prison in Lucasville, officials said.
Lawrence Reynolds' suicide attempt and hospitalization prompted Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland to grant a one-week reprieve before Reynolds' execution, the fourth under Ohio's one-drug protocol, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Reynolds, 43, of Cuyahoga Falls, near Akron, was convicted and sentenced to die for the Jan. 11, 1994, murder of a neighbor, Loretta Foster, whom he tried to sexually assault before beating her with a wooden tent pole and strangling her.
"I came in like a lion and go out like a lamb," Reynolds said in his last statement. "To my brothers, I hope they will never have to walk these 15 steps I walk today. I have tried to bring attention to the futility and flagrantly flawed system we have today. Stop the madness."
When he finished his statement, Patty Solomon, granddaughter of the victim, said, "Yeah, yeah, stop it now."
