LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A white gunman who spewed racialslurs before fatally shooting a black
man and a police officer in a 1994rampage that prosecutors called one of Ohio’s worst crimes was put
todeath Wednesday with the state’s last dose of its execution drug.Beforethe drug began to flow, Harry
Mitts Jr. asked the families of hisvictims — John Bryant and Garfield Heights police Sgt. Dennis Glivar
—to forgive him and not to hold hatred for him in their hearts.Glivar’swidow, Debbie, wept as the
61-year-old Mitts said from a prison gurneythat he’d carried the burden of his crimes with him for 19
years. "I hadno business doing what I did," he said.After the execution, Debbie Glivar said,
"I won’t forgive him, ever."Mittswas pronounced dead at 10:39 a.m. by lethal injection. He
made snoringnoises initially as the powerful sedative pentobarbital wasadministered. Prisons director
Gary Mohr said the state is on track totell a court next week how its executions will proceed now that
its drugsupply has expired.Mitts was convicted of aggravated murder andattempted murder in the August
1994 rampage against random neighbors andresponding police officers at his apartment complex in a
Clevelandsuburb.Wielding a gun with a laser sight and later other weapons,he first shouted racial
epithets and killed Bryant, a neighbor’sboyfriend who was black, then shot and killed Glivar, who was
white, ashe responded to the scene. Mitts also shot and wounded two other policeofficers.Thomas Kaiser,
Glivar’s partner and a witness toWednesday’s execution, said Mitts’ death did little to blunt the
damagethe lengthy case has caused."I don’t believe justice has beenserved," said Kaiser,
another of Mitts’ shooting victims. "Justiceshould not take 19 years for a case that had nothing —
there was noineffective counsel, there was no chance there was another suspect, noneof the normal
defenses that you hear. There was none of that in thiscase."Mitts had told the Ohio Parole Board —
which, along withGov. John Kasich had rejected his pleas for mercy — that he had drunkheavily because he
was distraught over his divorce and had likely shotBryant to draw police to his home in hopes they would
shoot and killhim.He said he wasn’t a racist and didn’t remember directingslurs at Bryant before
shooting him. He said he couldn’t say why hedidn’t shoot two white neighbors he encountered ahead of
Bryant.Bryant’ssister, Johnnal, said Wednesday that Mitts’ execution gave her at leastsome closure after
19 years — but she can’t yet grant his wish toforgive a crime based on the color of her brother’s
skin."No, I don’t forgive him," she said as she fought back tears. "Maybe one day I will,
but right now I don’t."Athis clemency hearing, Mitts had pointed to a virtually clean recordbefore
and after the day of the shootings and said he had found God inprison. After his conviction, he spoke of
receiving a Bible fromGlivar’s mother, Helen, and sister and said that the two had succeededin getting
him to seek repentance.Helen Glivar sat quietly during the execution and declined to step to a podium
afterward to address reporters.Asked afterward if she had anything to say about her son’s murder and his
killer’s death, she said only: "It is finished."Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All
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