Saturday, February 20, 1999
Outside prison walls, moods clash
Some cheer, while others pray, hug, cry
BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LUCASVILLE, Ohio — Opponents of the death penalty came with little hope that Wilford Lee Berry Jr. would live, but they came anyway.
A group started forming outside the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at 4 p.m., five hours before Mr. Berry was scheduled to die by injection.
Two hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block what would be Ohio's first execution in 36 years.
“We come here to say that taking this life, any life, is wrong,” said Sister Alice Gerdeman, a resident of Melbourne, Ky., and director of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine.
She opened the night's first prayer vigil. It was 5:30 p.m.
About 20 demonstrators formed a circle around a large candle — used in an Easter Vigil Mass — brought by the Rev. Neil Kookoothe, assistant pastor of Parma's St. Francis de Sales Church in suburban Cleveland.
They looked to the west, where the bright winter sun was dropping below the outline of prison buildings. Razor wire sparkled in the light.
“The candle symbolizes that Christ rose from the dead and no matter what we do, there is a higher power, and that is God,” the Rev. Mr. Kookoothe said. “We know God is merciful and will raise up Wilford Berry.”
As 9 p.m. neared, the crowd of death penalty opponents had grown to about 125, many of them carrying candles lighted from the Rev. Mr. Kookoothe's Easter candle.
The mood was somber. Their hope was that Mr. Berry's death would spur the majority of Ohioans to come forward and persuade lawmakers to repeal capital punishment.
About 40 death penalty supporters, who arrived two hours later and organized in a different area, offered another type of witness. Outnumbered 3-1 by death penalty foes, they were there to see justice done.
For the most part, the two sides ignored each other, but shortly before 9 p.m., three state troopers broke up an argument by two men.
Joyce Nistler of Hamilton, whose daughter's killer is on death row, was among the death penalty proponents.
“You never know what's going to happen,” Ms. Nistler said around 8 p.m. Her sign said, “It's about time, Ohio.”
Jason Bloomfield, 19, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and a college student, supported the death penalty with his sign, “Thanks Gov. Taft.” “If Berry is going to volunteer, they should do it,” he said. “I'm just for the death penalty in general.”
A friend, Shelley Lewis, 19, of Portsmouth and a student at nearby Shawnee State University, agreed. “He killed some one and he deserves to die. I don't know what these other people are doing here if he wants to die.”
About 9:09 p.m., many supporters began clapping and whistling. One man said, “Thank you, Wilford.”
At the same time, many opponents wept, especially those of college age, who consoled each other with hugs.
Opponents faced the prison and sang, “Swing low, sweet chariot,” and the refrain, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” from the Catholic Mass.
The mood was casual, almost jovial, among supporters. They talked loudly, laughing.
Leslie Horner, 24, of Athens, Ohio, and a graduate of the College of Mount St. Joseph, said, “I find it disturbing that so many people would cheer for another person's death. I don't think justice was done for the (Mitroff) family, for Berry or for us as a whole in Ohio.” Mr. Berry killed Charles Mitroff Jr. in a robbery in 1989.
In addition to several Xavier University and University of Dayton students, death penalty opponents included a lawyer, Catholic nuns and other longtime activists.
Berta Lambert, 57, of Over-the-Rhine, best-known for participating in cross-country walks against nuclear power, arrived wearing a worn baseball cap that read “Be Kind” and carrying two signs.
One read “Cincinnati Citizens against the Death Penalty.” Another sign belonged to another well-known activist, the late Rev. Maurice McCrackin. It read, “Killing by the state is also murder.”
Vehicles sped by the road beyond the parking lot. Young men leaned out of the passing pickups and cars and yelled “Fry him” or “Kill him” or “Later on, Wilford.”
Members of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center had color-coordinated signs and buttons: Black letters on a yellow background.
They also set up a card table on the prison lawn and distributed anti-death penalty literature. Pamphlets were held together with large rubber bands against the cold wind.
Their banner asked a question: “Why do we kill people who kill people? To show that killing people is wrong?”
Steve Urban, 53, of Cleveland owns a costume shop and wore a yellow chicken suit. His sign said, “Animals against the death penalty.”
Mr. Urban said he supports the death penalty, but not in this case. Mr. Berry is incompetent and should not be killed, he said. “My problem is the judicial system is not fair.”
At 8:50 p.m., when opponents said Mr. Berry had been strapped to a gurney in the death chamber and fitted with an intravenous line, the Rev. Mr. Kookoothe hit a button on a large portable cassette player.
He had recorded the funeral bells that play at the Parma church to mark a person's death. The tape played until they received word that Mr. Berry was dead.
BERRY DIES SILENTLY
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