COLUMBUS (AP) -- A man who admitted taking pleasure in stabbing, stomping and kicking to death three people spent the day before his execution meeting with his parents and other family members Monday, a prisons spokeswoman said.
Darrell Ferguson smoked cigarettes, drank Mountain Dew, listened to the radio and talked with the team set to execute him, prisons spokeswoman Andrea Dean said.
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Ferguson, 28, a 230-pound former high school wrestler who grew up in Dayton and has said he worships Satan, asked for the death penalty and waived his non-mandatory appeals.
He would be the youngest person executed in Ohio in 44 years. Adremy Dennis, also 28, was about two months older than Ferguson when he was put to death in October 2004.Ferguson was transferred Monday from death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, which houses Ohio's death chamber, Dean said.
Ferguson was convicted of three counts of aggravated murder in the Christmas Day, 2001, killing of Thomas King, 61, and the deaths of Arlie Fugate, 68, and his wife Mae, 69, the next day.
King, who was disabled and used crutches, Arlie Fugate, who had cancer, and Mae Fugate, who took meals to her wheelchair-bound neighbors, knew Ferguson and let him into their Dayton homes.
Ferguson committed the murders after getting a two-day pass Dec. 21, 2001, from a Cincinnati drug-treatment program he had been ordered to attend following a burglary conviction. Prosecutors said robbery was the motive for the killings.
Ferguson will be the second inmate put to death since state changed its injection guidelines after an execution in May was delayed when prison staff struggled to find a viable vein on the inmate. Dean said Ferguson's veins were examined when he arrived at the Lucasville facility and appeared fine.
Ferguson was served a special meal of three T-bone steaks cooked medium rare with ranch dressing on the side, two breaded chicken breasts, chocolate ice cream and Mountain Dew, Dean said. She said he began eating the meal before starting the face-to-face family visit and it would be left with him through the night.
Ferguson also had access to additional Mountain Dew and cigarettes throughout the night. If he sleeps, he will be awakened at 6 a.m., permitted to shower and allowed to visit with family through his cell.
Planning to witness the 10 a.m. execution are Ferguson's mother, father and stepfather; King's son, daughter-in-law and a family friend; and, the Fugates' son, daughter-in-law and grandson and a niece and her husband.
Gov. Bob Taft denied clemency Monday for Ferguson, who did not request it and asked his attorneys not to present evidence at a clemency hearing.
Ferguson will be the fourth inmate executed in Ohio this year and the 23rd since Ohio resumed executions in 1999. Dean said it will be the sixth execution of an inmate who voluntarily waived appeals.
newarkadvocate.com
