Indiana is set to executive its first death row inmate in more than two years.
No matter how cold it gets tonight, Marti Pizzini will be standing outside the gates of the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
Pizzini will be there with others who oppose the death penalty. Pizzini says capital punishment is not carried out fairly in the state nor does it deter crime.
PIZZINI: It doesn’t protect us. It costs a lot of money and keeps us from looking at important things like, why wasn’t Eric getting the mental health care that he needed.
Matthew Eric Wrinkles was convicted in the 1994 deaths of his estranged wife and two of her relatives in the far southern Indiana city of Evansville.
The 49-year-old Wrinkles is scheduled to die by lethal injection around 1 a.m. Friday.
No last-ditch appeals are expected.
Wrinkles declined to request clemency from Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
Dale Melczek, Roman Catholic Bishop of Gary, talks to Vocalo.org the day before Wrinkles’ scheduled execution. An opponent of the death penalty, Melczek met several times with Wrinkles while in prison.