With the execution of Lewis Williams Jr. Jan. 14, the number of death row inmates in Ohio totals 211. That number could be two less by the end of March, barring any last-minute reprieves.
John G. Roe is scheduled to be executed on Feb. 3 and William Wickline Jr. is scheduled for March 30.
“Execution dates are set by the Ohio Supreme Court,” said Brian Niceswanger, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. “So far in 2004, only these two additional dates have been set.”
According to the Ohio Public Defender, Ohio’s death row consists of 210 men and one woman. Of those 210, 104 are African-American, 101 are Caucasian, two are Latino, two are Native American and four are deemed “other.”
In 1995, Ohio’s death row was relocated to the Mansfield Correctional Institution, but the Death House remains at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where all executions are carried out, according to the DRC. In 2001, the DRC changed the time of scheduled executions from 9 p.m. to 10 a.m. to take advantage of business-hour resources and to reduce costs.
Since Ohio resumed the death penalty in 1999, nine men – five white and four black – have been executed, all by lethal injection. The men spent an average of 18 years on death row before they were executed.
“Of the 211 people on Ohio’s death row, 91 are currently being represented by the Ohio Public Defender’s office,” said Amy Borror, spokeswoman for the Ohio Public Defender.
Both Roe and Wickline are represented by pubic defenders.
Roe was found guilty on Dec. 6, 1985 on two counts of aggravated murder, one count of aggravated robbery and two counts of kidnapping for the kidnapping and murder of Donette Crawford.
According to the Ohio Supreme Court case summary, Crawford never returned home on Oct. 5, 1984. Her body was only discovered after Roe, who was being held for another crime, told police he had information on the missing woman.
Police then received a tip from a man to whom Roe had bragged about Crawford’s murder. Several weapons were then recovered from Roe’s parents’ home. Ballistics evidence determined the bullet fragment from Crawford’s skull had been fired from Roe’s revolver.
Wickline Jr. was convicted before a three-judge panel for the aggravated murders of Peggy and Christopher Lerch. Wickline was sentenced to death on Aug. 20, 1985.
According to the Ohio Supreme Court case summary, Wickline, the Lerchs and Teresa Kemp spent an evening in August 1982 using drugs at the Lerchs’ home. The next morning the four moved to an apartment shared by Wickline and Kemp. At the apartment, an argument broke out between Wickline and Christopher Lerch over the $6,000 he owed Wickline.
Wickline sent Kemp and Peggy Lerch to get the money. When they returned, Kemp began counting the money and Christopher Lerch reached for a gun that was on the kitchen counter. Wickline grabbed the gun and hit Christopher Lerch in the head. Kemp ran upstairs and found Christopher Lerch’s body in the bathtub with his throat cut. Wickline strangled Peggy Lerch to death with a rope and took her body upstairs, where he cut the Lerch’s bodies into small pieces and placed them into garbage bags.
Borror said all of Wickline’s appeals have been exhausted and he is now awaiting a clemency hearing.