Hartman, 38, died by lethal injection at 10:34 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. The Ohio Parole Board unanimously recommended against granting Hartman clemency three times, citing the brutality of the Snipes murder and Hartman’s refusal to admit guilt and show remorse.
He became the 49th Ohioan put to the death since the state restarted the death penalty in 1999 and the ninth so far this year.
Hartman was set to die in 2009 but federal courts granted him a reprieve to pursue an innocence claim, which failed. Hartman unsuccessfully appealed last week to the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his sentence.
Hartman declined to give a final statement Tuesday, saying, “I’m good, let’s roll.” He looked at his sister, Diane Moretti, watching on the other side of a glass window in the Death House, gave her a “thumbs-up” sign and smiled. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
He then turned to warden Donald Morgan and said something inaudible to the witnesses. According to prison spokesperson JoEllen Smith, Hartman said, “This is not going to defeat me.”
Hartman has always acknowledged having sex with Snipes on the day of her murder. He said he returned later to find her dead, attempted to clean his trace from the crime scene and called 911. Reports show Hartman cooperated with police, allowing searches of his apartment that turned up evidence placing him at the scene.
Hartman appealed numerous times to the courts to review untested evidence, including hairs and fingerprints on a mop handle. In his last appeal, Hartman argued his lawyers did a poor job representing him and that details of his troubled childhood would have explained his behavior at the crime scene and led the jury to decide a lesser sentence.
A friend of the victim, Jacqueline Brown of Doylestown, said there is no doubt that Hartman was guilty. Brown told reporters Tuesday that Snipes’s father died wanting Hartman’s execution and her mother was too ill to travel to Ohio from South Carolina.
“It’s been hard on all of us all these years to be repeatedly reminded of what happened to her and how Brett Hartman had killed her,” Brown said. “Now we have peace. Winda’s at peace.”
David Stebbins, one of Hartman’s attorneys, read a statement from the family, which pledged to recover evidence held in the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office.
“We hope the taking of Brett’s innocent life might serve as a wake-up call to flaws in our legal system — all evidence should be tested,” Stebbins said.
Prison spokeswoman Smith said Hartman had been calm and cooperative since he arrived at the Lucasville facility Monday morning. He was visited in the early evening by 15 visitors, including a daughter he recently learned he had.
While incarcerated, Hartman took up painting and donated sales from his artwork to various organizations, according to parole board records. He also painted murals on death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.
Hartman kept Buddhist mala prayer beads, a religious necklace and a photo album in his cell. Before his execution, he prayed, chanted and held hands with a Buddhist monk and took communion.
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