Double Murderer, Gary Otte Executed

LUCASVILLE, OH–Gary Otte, 45 and convicted of back-to-back murders 25 years ago, was executed on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2017.

Otte was sent to death row for fatally shooting Robert Wasikowski and Sharon Kostura during home invasion robberies in a Cleveland suburb in 1992.

His last effort to appeal included claims that the execution sedative Midazolam is unconstitutional and that he should have been excluded from the death penalty because he was under 21 at the time of the crime.

The U.S. Supreme Court and the state’s highest court declined to halt the execution.

A tweet sent out by his attorney, Vickie Werneke, said that while Otte had fought vigorously to stop the state from killing him, he was “at peace.” Prison officials informed that he did not sleep the night before the execution.

Gary Otte is now the second inmate to be put to death in Ohio since the three-year execution hiatus ended. The three year halt was due to a lethal injection that raised questions about the drugs being used.

Families of the victims, along with journalists who witnessed the execution, did not report any apparent problems similar to the breathing troubles and prolonged deaths that have occurred during a few of the other lethal injections in the past.

After Gary Otte apologized to relatives of his victims and sang the religious song “The Greatest Thing,” he uttered his last words, a line attributed to Jesus Christ during his crucifixion: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they’re doing.”

The corresponding press stated that Otte was pronounced dead at 10:54 a.m.

Featured Photo: The execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio.
Caroline Groussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images