Ohio inmate who wanted elected chair executed by injection after last-minute appeal fails

Tuesday, February 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) _ Convicted killer John W. Byrd Jr., who once chose the electric chair for his death to make a statement against capital punishment, was executed by injection on Tuesday after a federal appeals court refused to grant a stay.

Byrd, 38, was sentenced to die for the 1983 murder of Monte Tewksbury, 40, who was stabbed during a robbery at a convenience store outside Cincinnati where he was moonlighting to pay for his daughter's education.

Byrd maintained he was innocent of the murder. An accomplice, John Brewer, confessed to stabbing Tewksbury, but prosecutors argued that since Brewer already was serving a life sentence and could not be tried again, he was lying to protect Byrd.

It was Ohio's third execution since 1963, with all taking place in the past three years.

Gov. Bob Taft signed the bill in November that banned the use of the electric chair, and last week he denied Byrd clemency.

Shortly before his death, Byrd told his family that he loved them and to ``stay strong.''

``The corruption of the state will fall,'' he said. ``Governor Taft, you will not be re-elected. The rest of you, you know where you can go.''

Ohio Public Defender David Bodiker had asked the full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to block the execution while it reconsidered a ruling by a three-judge panel Monday night that said the execution could proceed.

Bodiker had said the 6th Circuit should have time to consider Byrd's appeal that killing him would violate his constitutional rights because he was innocent.

However, the 6th Circuit refused to step in less than two hours before he was executed.

The three-judge panel had ruled that Byrd could not start a second round of appeals after his first attempt to stop his execution failed. On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court had rejected an appeal arguing that Byrd was innocent.

Also on Tuesday, Columbus attorney Cliff Arnebeck, hired by Byrd and his family on Sunday, attempted to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to delay Byrd's execution, but was told he was not eligible to file documents in the case because he was not a member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar.

Byrd had originally chosen the electric chair as his method of execution, first scheduled for Sept. 12. He said he wanted to demonstrate the brutality of capital punishment by choosing the chair, which has not been used for an Ohio execution since 1963.

But the Legislature banned the chair's use, leaving lethal injection as the sole means of execution in Ohio.

Byrd insisted he can't remember the events of the night Tewksbury was killed because he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He said the evidence in the case did not prove he was guilty.

His fight to avoid execution exposed an unusual amount of rancor among judges in the circuit. Judges accused each other of holding secret meetings and engaging in questionable tactics to spare Byrd.

Byrd came within 45 minutes of being executed by electrocution on March 15, 1994, but the 6th U.S. Circuit overruled the Ohio Supreme Court's decision to allow the state to proceed.