Governor John Kasich went along with the unanimous recommendation of the parole board and denied clemency for Daniel Lee Bedford. The 63 year old Bedford admitted killing his ex-girlfriend Gwen Toepfert and her new boyfriend John Smith in Cincinnati in 1984, just a few days after he’d tried to get back together with her. Bedford’s attorney says he can’t remember the killings and suffers from dementia that he argues would make him unable to understand what would be happening to him. But the Ohio Supreme Court has rejected his case. Bedford could be the oldest person executed since capital punishment resumed in Ohio in 1999, and the fourth killer executed this year. The governor has yet to decide on mercy for Shawn Hawkins, another Cincinnati killer who the parole board has recommended not be put to death as scheduled in June.
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