Condemned 'homicidal hitchhiker' transferred to Lucasville today

[The Straight Story]

Condemned 'homicidal hitchhiker' transferred to Lucasville today

CINCINNATI (AP) - Ohio's "homicidal hitchhiker" faces execution Thursday for the killing 27 years ago of a Cincinnati man who often offered rides to hitchhikers and whose last good deed cost him his life.

Michael Beuke, 48, is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 1983 aggravated murder of Robert Craig, 27, of Cincinnati. He was convicted Oct. 5, 1983, for Craig's slaying and for attempting to kill another Ohio motorist and one from Indiana in the three-week shooting spree along Cincinnati-area roads.

Beuke pleaded not guilty but has since admitted his crimes, expressed remorse and is seeking clemency from Gov. Ted Strickland. He was transferred to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville on Wednesday morning to a cell about 15 steps from the death chamber.

Beuke opted against an elaborate special meal, as the last meal is called in Ohio, and planned to eat the normal prison dinner of chicken a la king, mashed potatoes and lima beans.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday was weighing Beuke's claim that prescription medicine he takes could interfere with a drug used in Ohio's backup execution method.

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