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Ohio executes Donald Palmer for killing two men in 1989

Donald Palmer Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation and Corrections

(CBS/AP) LUCASVILLE, Ohio - Ohio death-row inmate Donald Palmer was executed Thursday morning for killing two men he didn't know along a country road in 1989.

The state executed 47-year-old Palmer by lethal injection at a state prison in Lucasville in southern Ohio. His time of death was 10:35 a.m. EDT.

Palmer is the second inmate in Ohio to be executed this year and the 46th inmate in the state to be put to death in the past decade.

Palmer was convicted of fatally shooting Charles Sponhaltz and Steven Vargo in the head along a Belmont County road in eastern Ohio on May 8, 1989.

Palmer didn't know the men, who were both married fathers. Authorities say Palmer was in the area to confront and possibly rob a man who had dated his ex-wife.

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