Anchorage Daily News

An Alaska killer, sentenced to death in Ohio for an unrelated murder, can be executed in that state Tuesday as planned.

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John Fautenberry

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A federal appeals court on Friday refused to delay the execution of John Fautenberry, charged with a multi-state killing rampage in the early 1990s that included the murder of a miner on Admiralty Island.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld a ruling that Fautenberry, 45, is not entitled to a government-appointed specialist to help prove he became a murderer because of brain damage.

Fautenberry's lawyer said he will continue the appeal effort, which is focused on the currency of medical evaluations offered to the sentencing judge. He says Fautenberry suffered head injuries as a child, and again as an adult while serving in the U.S. Navy.

Fautenberry faces execution for the death of Joseph Daron Jr., 46, of Milford, Ohio, who picked him up hitchhiking in southwest Ohio in February 1991.

Fautenberry flew to Alaska shortly after killing Daron, landing in Juneau on March 4. In an interview after his arrest there he said he came to the Last Frontier looking to hide out, physically and emotionally.

"I had a backpack and everything, and I was just going to go up and I guess just be a hermit for the rest of my life," he said in an Associated Press account published after the arrest.

On March 14, Fautenberry, then 27, and Jeff Diffee, 39, ran into each other at a bar on Admiralty and Diffee invited the newcomer home.

Diffee's body was found in his condo two days later. Juneau police said he had been stabbed more than a dozen times and may have been tortured.

Fautenberry allegedly told a Cincinnati television station that killing seemed to make him "feel better."

A former trucker, Fautenberry confessed after his Alaska arrest to killings in Ohio, New Jersey and Oregon -- a total of six in all, over five months in late 1990 and early 1991.

In addition to the Alaska and Ohio murder convictions, he was convicted of manslaughter in New Jersey.

The Ohio Board of Parole recommended against clemency late last month and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland made the denial official on Wednesday.

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