Ohio’s first execution in 10 months set for today

Condemned killer Robert Van Hook is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the state prison near Lucasville in Ohio’s first execution in more than 10 months.

Van Hook left death row at a state prison near Chillicothe on Tuesday and was taken to the Southeastern Ohio Correctional Institution.

For his special meal served Tuesday evening, Van Hook requested double cheeseburgers, fries, strawberry cheese cake with whipped cream, a vanilla milkshake and grapefruit juice.

Van Hook, 58, was convicted of the 1985 murder of David Self, a man he met at a Cincinnati gay bar.

The stepson of an abusive homophobe, Van Hook blamed the murder on a fit of self-revulsion. He used a paring knife in an apparent attempt to decapitate Self, sliced open his abdomen and stabbed at his internal organs before placing several objects inside.

In arguing for clemency, Van Hook’s attorneys pointed to his chaotic childhood at the hands of his alcoholic, abusive birth parents — including a mother who struggled with mental illness. Van Hook’s father, a musician, introduced Van Hook to alcohol and drugs when Van Hook was 11 or 12 years old, his lawyers said.

At 14, Van Hook moved with his father to Florida and eventually ran away. He lived on the streets, in part supporting himself by having sex for money with men, his lawyers said. Van Hook

In the decades he’s been in prison, Van Hook has amassed a lengthy disciplinary record, including attacks on other inmates and prison personnel.

In his clemency statement, Van Hook took responsibility for Self’s murder and apologized to his family. But he also explained away much of his violent history by having to fight off would-be sexual attackers.

Van Hook sought a retrial, saying his lawyers didn’t have enough time to prepare. Separate federal courts ruled in favor of granting Van Hook a new trial, but the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 upheld his conviction.

Self’s family wants Van Hook to be executed. His sister, Janet Self, told the parole board that her brother’s murder reduced him in the public mind to nothing more than a gay man in a bar, when in reality he was an intelligent, witty person. She also noted that Self was abused by his own father and had to face prejudice because he was gay. Gov. John Kasich rejected a clemency request.

Van Hook’s execution would be the first in Ohio in 2018. The last attempted execution, of Alva Campbell in November, was called off when correction workers could not find a vein suitable to accept the intravenous death drugs. He died earlier this year of natural causes.

Killers Gary Otte and Ronald Phillips were executed last year. They were the first to die in Ohio’s death chamber after a three-year moratorium following the 2014 execution of Dennis McGuire, 53, who gasped, choked, clenched his fists and appeared to struggle against his restraints for about 10 minutes before being pronounced dead.