OHIO LAST MEAL
STEPHEN VRABEL
July 14, 2004 
 
...the cost of an execution by lethal injection is $66.43...
 
Last (Special) Meal:   Vrabel was allowed a specially ordered meal the evening before -- a BLT with extra mayonnaise, ham and cheese omelet with extra cheese, two hot dogs with mustard, pork and beans, potato salad, vanilla ice cream, chocolate pudding and six Cokes. 
 
The skinny:  Vrabel was executed for killing his wife and 3-year-old daughter.  He stuffed the woman's body in their refrigerator and the little girl's in the freezer section and continued to live in the apartment for several weeks before leaving.  He surrendered after the bodies were found by a family member. 
 
Vrabel never said why he shot his wife. He said he shot their daughter - whom he described as a "perfect child" - in part because she was "freaking out" about her mother's death. After the shootings, Vrabel placed the girl's body in the freezer along with her favorite stuffed animals. 
 
At the time of the killings, Vrabel was a year away from earning a bachelor's degree in social work at Youngstown State University.
 
Vrabel worked various jobs, including as a floor stripper, gas station attendant and jewelry salesman.

Vrabel, 47, had waived all appeals. Capital punishment opponents said he was a severe schizophrenic who spent four years in a psychiatric hospital after his arrest for the 1989 slayings.
 
Last day and such:  Vrabel spent the last night of his life watching the American League rout the National League in the All-Star Game. 

Last words and such:    Vrabel walk 17 steps from his holding cell to the execution chamber.   "I want to thank my sister for all the joy and happiness she has brought into [my daughter] life, and I want to apologize to anyone I may have wronged in my life," Vrabel said just before the lethal chemicals were pumped into his body.
 
Was the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame closed?  Busloads of death-penalty protesters, mostly students from other parts of the state, were expected at the prison. 
  
Factoids:   Vrabel was the second Ohio death row inmate since 1999 to drop his appeals to speed his execution.
 
With Vrabel's execution, Ohio quietly set a record with five so far this year, the most in a single year since the state resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1999.  A sixth, also a "volunteer," is set for Tuesday. 
 
A prison spokesman said the cost of an execution by lethal injection is $66.43.  
 
Because Vrabel's execution is for a double murder, the victim's family was allowed six witnesses, double the number usually allowed.

Vrabel will be buried in a state-owned cemetery in Chillicothe.

Vrabel was the....
33rd murderer executed in U.S. in 2004
918th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
5th murderer executed in Ohio in 2004
13th murderer executed in Ohio since 1976