Two hours to execute a chess player

Way back in one of the early Star Wars movies when C3PO was beating Chewbacca at chess he was warned of the danger of winning against something that could tear your arms off. It could have been worse: This week in Ohio a man was executed for killing his opponent in a chess game. The following report, dated May 26, comes from Novinite, the Bulgarian on-line news service.

The execution of a prisoner for killing a fellow cell mate over a chess game took two hours as his executioners struggled to find a vein in his arm for the lethal injections, reports said Friday.

Christopher Newton, 37, was said to have joked with prison workers and even had a toilet break, the Indianapolis Star reported.

The delay in carrying out the execution was the longest since Ohio reintroduced capital punishment in 1999, the report said.

"Yes, boy I could sure go for some beef stew and a chicken bone. That's it," Newton said in his final brief statement before he died at 11:53 am (1553 GMT) Thursday.

It is believed Newton's weight, at just over 102 kilograms, was a contributing factor in the difficulties in administering the death penalty. Executions normally take 20 minutes, the newspaper said.