Ohio Governor Denies Clemency in 11th-Hour Decision

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland denied clemency to a man who shot and killed a Toledo shopkeeper in 1993.

Thirty-seven-year-old Vernon Smith is set to be the second man to die by the state's unique single-drug lethal injection method at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Mercy from the Democratic governor was the last hope for Smith, who now goes by Abdullah Sharif Kaazim Mahdi. He has exhausted all his legal options.

Smith killed 29-year-old Sohail Darwish, an immigrant raised in Saudi Arabia.