Joseph Clark was executed by the State of Ohio for the murder of David Manning
According to court documents Joseph Clark would rob a gas station and in the process would shoot and kill the clerk David Manning
Joseph Clark would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Joseph Clark would be executed by lethal injection on May 2 2006
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When Was Joseph Clark Executed
Joseph Clark was executed on May 2 2006
Joseph Clark Case
Ohio executed a man Tuesday following a delay of more than an hour because of unprecedented difficulty administering the lethal injection. Joseph Lewis Clark, 57, died by injection at 11:26 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for killing a gas station clerk during a spree of robberies in 1984 in which he also killed a convenience store worker.
The execution was set to begin at 10 a.m. It was the longest delay since the state resumed executions in 1999, state prisons spokeswoman Andrea Dean said.
The execution was slowed as the execution team worked to find a vein in his right arm. After 25 minutes of trying to find a vein, the team strapped Clark to the gurney with a shunt in his left arm. Clark said, “It don’t work” and “They’re not working” as the team tried to start the injection. A curtain separating the death house from witnesses was pulled shut. Clark could be heard moaning and groaning from behind the curtain.
When the curtain reopened at 11:17 a.m., Clark still had a shunt in his left arm and his eyes were closed. “This has never happened,” Dean said of the delay.
Clark, sentenced to die in November 1984 for killing David Manning, had been on Ohio’s death row longer than all but 11 of the 193 men on death row. Prisons director Terry Collins said the vein in Clark’s arm collapsed. Clark had a history of drug use, and Collins said that could have been a factor. “The team here is a very professional team. They’re doing a very, very difficult job under difficult circumstances,” he said.
In his final statement, Clark apologized to the victim’s family. “I would like to say to family and friends that I didn’t get to talk to, … that was wondering how I felt, I would like them to know that I asked God to forgive me, that I asked the Lord to save me from my sins,” he said. “And I asked God to forgive those who are participating in this here today.”
Gov. Bob Taft rejected Clark’s appeal for clemency last week, saying he found “no justifiable basis for mercy.” Clark confessed to police that he killed Manning, saying that he was trying to get money for drugs. Clark shot and killed convenience store clerk Donald Harris the day before killing Manning, working the night shift at a Toledo gas station. According to court records, Manning was shot by Clark in the chest after telling him there was no money. Clark was arrested three days later after he shot and wounded a man withdrawing money from an automated teller machine.
In a March interview at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, Clark said he didn’t intend to kill Manning. “He started coming toward me with something like a metal like a metal rod or something in his hand,” Clark said. “I sort of somehow squeezed the trigger off and shot him.”
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