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Too fat to execute using lethal injection?

By Douglas A. Berman

Obesity, sex and death are all to be found in this CNN story, headlined "Weight gain not intentional to dodge execution, inmate says."  Here are the basics:A double murderer scheduled to be executed next month in Ohio said Tuesday he has not deliberately gained weight to rule out his death by lethal injection. Instead, Richard Cooey said in a death row interview that his execution cannot be carried out humanely under current state procedures because his veins are hard to reach. "Vein access was an issue even when I was back in the service," Cooey, 41, said in an hour-long interview with the Associated Press at the Ohio State Penitentiary. Cooey, 5-foot, 7 inches tall and 267 pounds, said he has gained perhaps 70 pounds while being locked up for raping and killing two University of Akron students 22 years ago while he was on leave from the U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 17, 2008 (boomark / email).