EXECUTION #35

Marvallous Keene
Executed July 21, 2009 10:36 a.m. by Lethal Injection in Ohio
35th murderer executed in U.S. in 2009
1171st murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
3rd murderer executed in Ohio in 2009
31st murderer executed in Ohio since 1976
Summary:
Keene was the head of a self-proclaimed Downtown Posse of juveniles and young adults in Dayton. Working with three young co-conspirators, Keene murdered Joseph Wilkerson, 34, an acquaintance; Danita Gullette, 18, a stranger using a public telephone on the street; and Sarah Abraham, 38, a clerk at a convenience store. When he feared they would snitch on him, Keene was involved in the silencing of two acquaintances who knew too much: Wendy Cottrill, 16, and Marvin Washington, 18. Washington was shot by co-conspirator DeMarcus Smith. Keene’s girlfriend, Laura Taylor, killed a sixth victim, Richmond Maddox, 19. The crimes spanned Dec. 24-26, 1992 and were known as the "Christmas Killings." Taylor and Smith were juveniles at the time of the killings and thus ineligible for the death penalty. Another defendant, Heather Matthews, was indicted on two capital murder charges, but was granted a plea agreement in exchange for her testimony against Keene and Taylor. Smith, Taylor and Matthews all are serving prison sentences in excess of 100 years.
Final/Special Meal:
A Porterhouse steak with A-1 sauce, a pound of jumbo fried shrimp with cocktail sauce, french fries and onion rings with ketchup, dinner rolls and butter, two plums, a mango, a pound of seedless white grapes, German chocolate cake, two bottles of Pepsi and two bottles of A&W cream soda.
Final Words:
"I have no words."
The Execution
He is to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. at the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
Keene, 36, arrived at Lucasville at 9:43 a.m. from death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. Staff members gave him a medical evaluation and checked his veins to be sure they could accept the intravenous lines containing a lethal cocktail of three drugs. “He’s generally been calm,” said Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. “He’s pretty quiet right now.”
He spent most of the morning watching television and writing what appeared to be letters, she said.
Marvallous Keene's death was swift, silent, subdued. Just four minutes after being strapped down to the lethal-injection table -- and two minutes after the chemicals began flowing into his veins -- the Dayton "Christmas Killer" turned his head slightly to the left, then closed his eyes for the last time. The official time of Keene's death at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville was 10:36 a.m. But he seemed gone much earlier: He didn't move, and his chest showed no sign that he was breathing.