evan price
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Lawyer: Death row inmate likely won't pursue federal appeals
By JOHN McCARTHY
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A death row inmate who said at trial that he enjoyed killing his victims likely won't pursue appeals that could postpone his Aug. 8 execution, his lawyer said Wednesday.
If Darrell Ferguson continues to refuse his appeals, he would be the sixth inmate to do so since Ohio resumed executions in 1999, state prisons spokeswoman Andrea Dean said.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to reconsider its affirmation of Ferguson's conviction and sentence in the stabbing and beating deaths of Thomas King and Arlie and Mae Fugate of Dayton in 2001. The court, without comment, also moved the execution from July 26 to Aug. 8.
King, 61, was killed on Dec. 26, 2001. Arlie Fugate, 68, who was battling cancer, and his wife, Mae, 69, were killed the next day. Prosecutors said Ferguson stabbed the victims and stomped them with steel-toed boots.
Ferguson, 28, has decided not to pursue appeals available in federal courts, said Gary Crim, his lawyer.
"He's not appealing anything at this point," Crim said.
A message seeking comment was left for Dennis Adkins, another lawyer who has worked on the case, although Crim said Adkins currently is not involved. No lawyers from the office of the Ohio Public Defender are representing Ferguson, spokeswoman Amy Borror said.
Ferguson would have one year from the court's April 12 ruling to begin federal appeals, Borror said.
At his sentencing in 2003, Ferguson stunned the victims' families by boasting about the slayings.
"I took the satisfaction ... of killing your loved ones with pleasure. And I enjoyed it," Ferguson said. "If I was free to go back in society, I'd pick up where I left off."
In its April ruling, the Supreme Court rejected claims from Ferguson's attorneys that Ferguson did not get a fair competency evaluation because it was performed by a psychologist, not a psychiatrist, and did not include test results that could have helped the court assess his mental state.
"Ferguson stated in graphic terms that he took great satisfaction in killing his victims, felt no sorrow for his victims or their surviving family members," Justice Alice Robie Resnick wrote for the court. "Thus, by his own words, Ferguson is a remorseless, sadistic and incorrigible killer."
Four others who have given up federal appeals have been put to death in the past seven years: Wilford Berry, who was the first prisoner Ohio executed in 36 years, in 1999; Stephen Vrabel and Scott Mink, both in 2004; and Herman Ashworth in 2005. Rocky Barton, 49, of Warren County, is scheduled to be executed on July 12.
The spate of inmates giving up their appeals is troubling, but little can be done to intervene, said Alice Gerdeman, chairwoman of Ohioans to Stop Executions, a non-profit group.
"When somebody refuses their rightful appeals it disturbs me, because a human life is being taken," Gerdeman said. "He (Ferguson) probably has done the deed. Just from the little correspondence we've had with him, he seems very mentally ill or mentally disturbed in some way."
Gerdeman said her group would write to Gov. Bob Taft and ask him to grant Ferguson clemency. Of the 22 death penalty cases to come up for clemency, Taft has granted it just once.
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OK, so the guy is on Death Row. But let me re-iterate this quote, this is what is vile:
Gerdeman said her group would write to Gov. Bob Taft and ask him to grant Ferguson clemency.
CLEMENCY??!!?? This guy said:
"I took the satisfaction ... of killing your loved ones with pleasure. And I enjoyed it," Ferguson said. "If I was free to go back in society, I'd pick up where I left off."
Constitution says no cruel and inhuman punishment. OK. But to offer CLEMENCY? You got to be kidding. How are those touchy-feely Liberals sleeping at night?
:banghead: