Jason Getsy, Troy Davis Case
Jason Getsy, Ohio has executed the triggerman in a 1995 murder-for-hire scheme that killed a 66-year-old woman and severely injured her son.
Thirty-three-year-old Jason Getsy was pronounced dead at 10:29 a.m. Tuesday in the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville.
Getsy was sentenced to die for fatally shooting Ann Serafino in a crime that targeted her son, Charles Serafino, in a dispute over a lawn care business.
Charles Serafino was shot seven times but survived and witnessed Getsy’s execution Tuesday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — The triggerman in an Ohio murder-for-hire scheme that killed a 66-year-old woman and critically wounded her son was awaiting execution Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal.
Jason Getsy, 33, was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville.
Getsy fatally shot Ann Serafino in her home in Hubbard, near Youngstown, on July 7, 1995. Her son, Charles Serafino, was the intended victim.
John Santine, who orchestrated the crime, was in a dispute over ownership of a landscaping business with Charles Serafino and offered Getsy $5,000 to kill him and any witnesses to the crime. Santine was convicted of aggravated murder.
Prosecutors said Charles Serafino was lying wounded on the floor when Getsy struck his mother in the head with a revolver, opening a 4-inch gash, and then shot her twice.
Charles Serafino, who was shot seven times, survived the attack and pressed for Getsy’s execution.
“It’s not going to change my life. But it’s justice for my mother, and that’s what she deserves,” said Serafino, who planned to witness Tuesday’s execution.
Getsy spent Monday night writing letters — he asked for 15 stamped envelopes — making phone calls and reading the Bible. He ate part of his last meal, including rib-eye steak, barbecued buffalo wings and onion rings.
He slept from 2:22 a.m. to 5:32 a.m., got up and took a shower, then began seeing visitors again Tuesday morning, said prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn.
His visitors included his grandmother, an aunt and uncle, a step-aunt, his spiritual adviser and his two attorneys.
Getsy declined breakfast. He has remained upbeat and positive, Walburn said.
Getsy, who dropped out of school in the 12th grade, never met his father and was raised by his mother and stepfather. In 1992, he was convicted of negligent homicide in the death of a 14-year-old companion who died playing Russian roulette.
The Ohio Parole Board by a 5-2 vote last month recommended clemency for Getsy because other defendants in the slaying, including Santine, appeared just as guilty but weren’t sentenced to die. Gov. Ted Strickland overruled the board last week, saying the sentencing disparity did not by itself justify granting clemency.
Appeals courts previously have questioned Getsy’s sentence. A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his sentence in 2006, saying it was arbitrary. The full 6th Circuit reinstated it in 2007 in an 8-6 ruling.
The Ohio Supreme Court also noted the sentencing differences in a 1998 ruling but said that was not enough to spare Getsy.
The U.S. Supreme Court late Monday denied Getsy’s request for a stay of execution. His lawyers had said they wanted challenge Ohio’s lethal injection system as unconstitutionally cruel.
Jason Getsy, Troy Davis Case was first posted on August 18, 2009 at 10:43 pm.
Robert Novak passed away today at 78
Robert Novak, a giant in political reporting and punditry who crossed swords with people across the entire political spectrum, has passed away today at 78.
Novak was an unapologetic warrior for his beliefs as a pundit, having spent decades building his credibility as a journalist. Nicknamed “the Prince of Darkness”, a title he proudly used for his memoirs, Novak did not mince words or suffer fools lightly. He became one of the premier conservative pundits in the US, but did not hesitate to criticize the Right — or to do so with brutal honesty — when he felt it was running off the rails. He blasted the McCain campaign for misleading him on the running-mate selection process last summer, for instance. A couple of months before that, he ripped the GOP for feeding at the public trough on ag subsidies while claiming the mantle of fiscal discipline.
Robert Novak passed away today at 78 was first posted on August 18, 2009 at 11:11 pm.
Mindy Mccready
Mindy McCready saying she tell the world about her relation with Roger on reality series slated for January, including that her long-term affair with the former Yankee pitcher kick-started a downward spiral when it came to her future relationships with men.
“He was the first person I fell madly in love with,”Mindy McCready told , referring to Clemens. “But having a person promise you the world and then not give it to you, that’s the worst kind of abuse a person can suffer.” McCready, 33, is part of a rogue’s gallery of celebrities who will appear on VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” scheduled to air in early 2010. McCready will appear with actress Mackenzie Phillips, former madam Heidi Fleiss, actor Tom Sizemore and former NBA star Dennis Rodman, among others. McCready is treated on the show for co-dependency and said Clemens comes up during her on-show treatment. “Dr. Drew and his team point out that a man like Roger Clemens is responsible for paving the way for what my relationships with men would be like,” McCready said.
Mindy Mccready was first posted on August 18, 2009 at 10:52 pm.
