Gary OtteState of Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Parole Board has recommended that Gov. John Kasich reject the clemency request of an inmate sentenced to die for killing two people in Parma in 1992.
Gary Otte made his plea for mercy in an interview with the Parole Board in January. The board considered arguments at a hearing earlier this month.
You can read the Parole Board’s report below. Mobile users click here.
Otte is scheduled to die by lethal injection June 13. His execution date was one of eight rescheduled as a result of a lawsuit by inmates over Ohio’s lethal injection protocol. The Kasich administration announced the new execution dates Friday.
What was the crime?
On Feb. 12, 1992, Otte shot 61-year-old Robert Wasikowski in the head and stole $413 after talking his way into Wasikowski’s home at the Pleasant Lake apartment complex. The next day, Otte forced his way into Sharon Kostura’s apartment in the same complex and shot her in the head. He stole $45, car keys and a checkbook from the 45-year-old woman.
A Cuyahoga County court convicted Otte guilty of two counts of aggravated murder and other crimes later that year. His received death sentences for both of the killings.
What did Otte’s lawyers argue?
At the clemency hearing, Otte’s lawyers argued his life should be spared because he was repeatedly bullied as a child and that bullying led to drug and alcohol use and depression that led him to commit his crimes.
Otte’s trial lawyers failed to effectively present mitigating evidence that could have prompted his trial court to reject a death penalty in favor of life in prison, his lawyers argued. Life without parole, which wasn’t an available sentence when Otte was tried for his crimes, would be a fitting and just punishment, they said.
What did the parole board decide?
The parole board rejected Ott’s arguments, voting 11-0 against clemency.
The report now goes to Kasich, who ultimately will decide Otte’s fate.
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