LUCASVILLE, Ohio, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Nazi sympathizer Frank Spisak was executed Thursday, 30 years after killing three people in a race-inspired shooting rampage at Cleveland State University.
Spisak, 59, was pronounced dead at 10:34 a.m. EST following a lethal injection of sodium pentothal at the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, about 80 miles south of Columbus.
Spisak, whose more than 27 years on death row set an Ohio record, lost a U.S. Supreme Court request Wednesday seeking to delay the execution while his lawyers argued the constitutionality of Ohio's death penalty.
Spisak's lawyers earlier asked Ohio to spare Spisak's life because they said he had a bipolar disorder and severe mental illness. But the state parole board decided -- and new Republican Gov. John Kasich agreed -- the circumstances of his 1982 killing spree outweighed concerns about his mental health, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported.
Spisak was found guilty of killing the Rev. Horace Rickerson, 57; Brian Warford, 17, and CSU employee Timothy Sheehan, 50.
Prosecutors argued he shot Rickerson and Warford because they were black and Sheehan because he witnessed one of the killings.
Spisak said he killed them because he followed Adolf Hitler's ideology and was confused about his sexual identity, court records indicated.
He experimented with cross-dressing and preferred to be called Frances Anne, The Plain Dealer said. During his trial, he wore a Hitler-style mustache and saluted the Nazi leader in court.
Spisak's last words were the first seven verses of Chapter 21 of the Book of Revelation, which he read in German, the newspaper said.
Struggling to read his handwritten note, he said at one point: "I can't read it. It's too blurry. I can't read it."
The newspaper said his difficulties prompted Eric Barnes, Warford's brother and an execution witness, to say, "Speak English, you fool."
