08 February 2010 :

Mark Brown was executed this morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. Brown, 37, black, was sentenced to death for the Jan. 28, 1994, gunning down of Isam Salman, a store owner and Hayder Al-Turk, an employee in the same store. A few days later, after his arrest, Brown admitted to police that he had shot Al-Turk, but said he didn't remember shooting Salman. He said he "just flipped out" and attributed it to the Valium he was taking at the time. Brown was convicted for both murders, but was sentenced to death only for killing Salman - a crime he and his attorneys now claim was committed by his co-defendant Allen "Boonie" Thomas. Brown was the 2nd Ohioan executed this year and the 35th since capital punishment was resumed in 1999. Brown becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and th3 1194th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.