Too fat to die? We’re not buying it



If the state of Ohio did not feed Richard Wade Cooey III, doubtless 
his lawyers would be arguing that he was being subjected to cruel and 
unusual punishment.

As it is, Cooey has been fed so well that he is morbidly obese, which 
allowed his lawyers to argue that executing him would be cruel and 
unusual punishment. He is so fat that his executioners will have 
difficulty finding a vein in which to insert the needle by which the 
lethal drugs would be administered.

First response

If the state of Ohio hasn’t responded to Cooey’s plight by now, it 
should. Put him on a strict regimen of low fat foots and moderate 
exercise. There was an intriguing sentence in a recent Columbus 
Dispatch story reporting Cooey’s latest attempt to avoid the 
execution he earned more than 20 years ago. It said that Cooey, whose 
reported weight on May 19 was 275 pounds, has gained weight in the 
last two months.

How does that happen? Prison officials presumably have control over 
everything Cooey eats. The story didn’t say how much he has gained, 
but he shouldn’t have gained a pound. He was sentenced to be 
executed, not sentenced to eat himself to death.

Cooey, 41, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. on Oct. 
14. That is the date that justice should be served. He was sentenced 
to death for the murdering Dawn Marie McCreery, 20, and Wendy Jo 
Offredo, 21, on Sept. 1, 1986. Cooey and an accomplice, Clint 
Dickens, abducted and raped the Akron-area college women before 
choking and bludgeoning them to death. Dickens, a juvenile at the 
time, was sentenced to life in prison.

For two decades, during which Cooey put those 275 pounds on his 5 
feet 7 inch body he has used various legal appeals to avoid 
execution, including claims of ineffective counsel. Five years ago he 
was within 12 hours of execution when a federal judge intervened.

Demands of justice

The families of the victims of such brutal murderers as Cooey deserve 
finality after a jury has rendered its verdict and a judge has passed 
sentence. Society demands that justice be administered impartially 
and efficiently.

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is required to do 
everything humanly possible to administer the three drugs that are 
part of the execution process in a humane manner. They should be 
preparing to do whatever is necessary in the case of Cooey, starting 
with putting him on a diet. In fact, the state had better begin 
closely monitoring the diets of all the men on death row, lest there 
be an epidemic of “morbid obesity.”

http://www.vindy.com/news/2008/aug/15/too-fat-to-die-we8217re-not-
buying-it/