Criminal Law

On January 13, 1984 Joseph Clark, a 57 year old man from Columbus Ohio, shot a Marine reservist and father of two, David Manning, and stole $65 from the gas station where Manning was working. Harris was filling in for a friend at a convenience store when Clark entered and demanded the contents of the store's safe. Harris said he did not know the safe's combination, and was shot in the back of the head. The murder came during an eight-day crime spree in which Clark also murdered another man, Donald Harris, and wounded a third man during an attempted robbery. Clark said he robbed to support a drug habit. After he was arrested, Clark tried to hang himself in his jail cell, and confessed to the murders while recovering in a hospital. He was sentenced to death for Manning's murder. On May 2, 2006 the Ohio department of Corrections said Joseph Clark, was pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m. following an injection of lethal chemicals. Shortly after the poisons were supposed to have been pumping into his body, he sat up saying, "It's not working. It's not working." Officials determined that a vein had collapsed. Curtains were closed to block witnesses' view until technicians found a vein in his other arm. The curtains were then parted to reveal him dying. The method involves three separate drugs: the first renders the victim unconscious, the second stops all muscle movement except the heart and the third stops the heart, causing death. Ohio has used lethal injection repeatedly without similar problems, but this method of execution, used in all but one of the 38 states that impose capital punishment, is under legal attack.