Ohio Board Won’t Stop Execution
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state parole board denied clemency Thursday for a man who says he’d rather die in the electric chair than by injection for a slaying he claims was committed by an accomplice.
In its 10-1 vote, the board said statements by an accomplice exonerating John W. Byrd Jr. of the murder lacked “any credibility whatsoever.”
Gov. Robert A. Taft must decide whether to accept the board’s recommendation. He has denied clemency to the last two men executed in Ohio, Wilford Berry in 1999 and Jay Scott in June.
Byrd, 37, is scheduled to be executed Sept. 12. He has said he wants to die in the electric chair to illustrate the brutality of capital punishment.
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