The state has executed a former prison slaughterhouse worker convicted of killing a couple, dismembering their bodies and stashing parts in trash bins around Columbus.
Fifty-two-year-old William Wickline is the eleventh inmate to die by injection since Ohio resumed executions five years ago. He was pronounced dead at 10:11 am at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
A three-judge panel convicted Wickline of killing Christopher and Peggy Lerch in 1982. Court records say the couple owed him $6,000 for drugs.
Wickline's attorneys have said he houldn't have been convicted based on the eyewitness testimony of his former girlfriend and scant physical evidence.
In his final statement, Wickline said he hopes the courts will be shaped by more wisdom and less politics.
