“It is a very weird thing for a person sitting where I am to say, but I believe in the death penalty, and an eye for an eye,” Richard Wade Cooey wrote.
After spending the last 17 years on death row, Cooey’s fate is now in the hands of the Ohio Parole Board. They are expected to make a decision Friday.
The results of Tuesday’s clemency hearing will decide if he will be executed July 24.
Cooey and accomplice Clint Dickens were arrested Sept. 1, 1986, for the brutal rape and murders of two students from the University of Akron.
Wendy Offredo, 21, and Dawn McCreery, 20, were forced to stop their car on I-77 in Summit County after Cooey dropped a large piece of concrete onto their vehicle from an overpass. He and Dickens then took the women to a wooded area in Norton, Ohio, raped them, robbed them and strangled them with shoelaces.
Cooey later bragged to his friends about the murders and was eventually turned in to authorities.
He was sentenced to death on Dec. 5, 1986, and his appeal was denied Dickens is serving a life sentence.
Although Cooey does not deny his guilt, the defense is seeking clemency, using Cooey’s abused childhood and his drug addiction at the time of the murder as a basis.
“We are here seeking clemency; we are not here seeking avoidance; we are not here asking for relief,” Shank said. “When little Rick soiled himself or failed to get to the toilet in time, his father would shove Rick’s head into the toilet, both injuring and humiliating him. Other times he would rub Rick’s face into his own feces.”
During the hearing the Ohio Parole Board listened to compelling testimony from the inmate’s family and both of the victims’ families.
“I want this nightmare to end. I don’t expect ‘closure’ with Cooey’s death, just a little peace. I feel that 17 years is too long to wait,” said Mary Ann Hackenberg, McCreery’s mother.
The grandmother who helped raise Cooey also testified.
“Memories are one thing no one can take away. When I talk to him, he often mentions the good times we shared. Also some of the heartaches we share. I know he loves his family,” Audrey Cooey said.
Sherri Bevan Walsh, Summit County prosecutor, argued the state’s case opposing Cooey’s clemency. Descriptive slides of the women’s lives showed detailed descriptions of the women’s future aspirations.
“I think the hearing went very well for the state of Ohio; it was very difficult for the families of the victims to testify, and I’m proud of them,” Walsh said.
If Cooey is executed, Hackenburg said she won’t have to worry any more.
“As I grow older and hopefully wiser, time does not heal my wounds,” said Jon Offredo, Wendy’s brother. “Wendy did not die fighting for her country. She died fighting for her life.”
