‘Volunteer’ Who Sought Death Penalty Is Executed
<i> Associated Press</i>
LUCASVILLE, Ohio —
A killer dubbed “The Volunteer” because of his desire to die rather than face life in prison was put to death by injection Friday night in Ohio’s first execution since 1963.
In the afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Wilford Lee Berry Jr., 36, who refused to participate in his lawyers’ efforts to save his life.
Berry was convicted with a cohort of shooting to death a Cleveland baker in a 1989 robbery. Berry had been hired to work as a handyman at the shop a few days earlier.
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