Ohio Executes Man Who Killed Shopkeeper, Clerk

LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- Condemned killer Mark Brown filed a last-minute lawsuit challenging Ohio's execution process as flawed and capable of causing severe pain, then was put to death Thursday in a nearly flawless death penalty procedure.

Brown, 37, was pronounced dead at 10:49 a.m. from a single dose of a powerful anesthetic under the state's new injection procedure, with death coming about nine minutes after the drug began flowing.

Brown was sentenced to die for the 1994 fatal shooting of 32-year-old Isam Salman, owner of the Midway Market in Youngstown, a crime in which he boasted of copying a movie's killings. He got a life prison term for killing the clerk, 30-year-old Hayder Al-Turk, who was shot first.

Brown did not give a last statement. After the single dose of thiopental sodium was administered at 10:40 a.m., he blinked several times, closed and opened his eyes and swallowed once before shutting his eyes a last time. At 10:42 a.m., his chest heaved, he appeared to yawn, his chest rose and dropped slightly several more times, then he fell still.

Federal lawsuits allege Ohio's execution team isn't properly trained, but the procedure went as smoothly Thursday as any execution in recent memory. Members of the team easily inserted IV needles in both of Brown's arms in about five minutes, sticking him just once on each arm.

The state recently switched from a three-drug lethal injection process, which opponents said could cause severe pain, to a one-drug system. Medical checks Wednesday and Thursday showed Brown had usable veins, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said.

"This execution was carried out professionally and in accordance with the laws of the state of Ohio," Walburn said. "It went as well as we expected it to go."

Brown was given permission Jan. 28 to join the most recent legal challenge in Ohio, but federal courts then denied his request for an execution delay.

Salman's son, brother and sister witnessed the execution.

"As sad as this may be, and it's very sad, justice has been served," sister Terri Rasul said afterward. "I just hope that this is a lesson for the young children today that they will learn not to do what Mark Brown had did to my brother."

Brown was up most of the night talking to friends and family on the phone before sleeping for about 90 minutes early Thursday. His mood was more emotional Wednesday during visits with a brother, Kenneth Smith, and when he learned around 7 p.m. that Gov. Ted Strickland had rejected his request for clemency, Walburn said.

State parole board records say Brown had been smoking cigars gouged out and refilled with marijuana and drinking wine laced with an anti-anxiety drug on Jan. 28, 1994, when he told friends he wanted to copy a scene from "Menace II Society," which stars Samuel L. Jackson and begins with the killings of two store clerks.

Brown went inside the convenience store with a friend, and both walked out together. Brown re-entered the store alone and shot the owner and the clerk, according to police and prosecutors' accounts.

Brown said he shot Al-Turk but didn't remember shooting Salman. Last month, he argued unsuccessfully for a new trial, saying witnesses could testify that his friend shot Salman. A judge said the witnesses weren't credible.

After his arrest, Brown blamed the drug Valium, saying, "they make you go off," according to parole board records.

The Ohio Parole Board rejected Brown's request for mercy last month, saying there appeared to be "no manifest injustice in either the conviction or the sentence."

Brown had told the board he was a changed, mature man trying to positively influence his four teenage children, his nephew and his nephew's friends by urging them to stay in school and avoid the mistakes he had made.

His public defender, Rachel Troutman, told the parole board that Brown's mother was a lifelong drug user who abused and neglected her children and eventually abandoned Brown. Troutman witnessed the execution but did not comment.

But Rasul told the board that the killing left seven children without a father. She said Brown should be executed to show there are consequences for a terrible crime.

Brown ordered a large final meal but ate only part of it around 8 p.m. Wednesday, including a cheeseburger, french fries, onion rings and orange soda. He requested a quart of Rocky Road ice cream around 11:30 p.m.

Ohio has put 35 men to death since resuming executions in 1999. The state is on a record pace for executions this year, with two men put to death so far and executions scheduled each month through September. Ohio executed seven inmates in 2004, second in the nation behind Texas.

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