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| Dennis McGuire |
A man convicted of murder in the US state of Ohio has been executed using a new, never-before-tried lethal injection combination.
Dennis McGuire, 53, was killed on Thursday with a two-drug cocktail, after the maker of the previous execution drug refused to allow its use in capital punishment.
His lawyers argued the new method would cause him to experience extreme terror.
McGuire was sentenced to death for the 1989 rape and murder of Joy Stewart.
Stewart was pregnant.
In recent years, US states have had increasing difficulty obtaining drugs for use in lethal injections, as their manufacturers have grown unwilling to provide them for that use.
Ohio officials elected to use intravenous doses of the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone for McGuire's execution.
Lawyers for McGuire had said the drugs placed him at risk of air hunger, a phenomenon which causes terror as the patient struggles to catch his breath.
During the more than 15-minute procedure, McGuire gasped several times and his mouth repeatedly opened and closed, according to an Associated Press news agency reporter who witnessed the execution.
'I'm going to heaven, I'll see you there when you come,' he said in the small, windowless room in the Lucasville correctional facility. He was pronounced dead at 10:53 a.m., after one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999.
McGuire thanked his 22-year-old victim's family for a letter he received from them, referring to 'kind words' that meant a lot. Joy Stewart's sister Carol Avery wrote in the note that she had forgiven him but also insisted 'it is time - past time - for him to pay for what he did to my sister.'
The 53-year-old opened and shut his hands as if waving to his adult son, daughter and daughter-in-law sitting a few feet away and a full minute later he stood up and told them, 'I love you, I love you.'
McGuire's last meal yesterday consisted of roast beef, a cream cheese bagel, fried chicken, potatoes two ways, butter pecan ice cream and Coca-Cola. He skipped a shower and breakfast this morning and had a final visit with his children before the scheduled execution.
On Wednesday, he arrived calmly at the death house and spent the night writing letters, phoning his mother and sister and visiting with his son and daughter.
An Ohio federal judge had rejected a last-minute appeal to delay the execution after McGuire's legal team argued a jury never heard details of his reportedly troubled childhood.
McGuire's lawyers alleged he was abused, leading to impaired brain function that made him prone to impulsive actions.
Ohio Governor John Kasich also rejected McGuire's efforts to become an organ donor, a legal manoeuvre that previously allowed another death row inmate an eight-month reprieve.
Source: BBC News, Daily Mail, January 16, 2014
Ohio killer’s execution takes almost 25 minutes
LUCASVILLE, Ohio — A condemned man appeared to gasp several times and took an unusually long time to die — more than 20 minutes — in an execution carried out Thursday with a combination of drugs never before tried in the U.S.
Dennis McGuire’s attorney Allen Bohnert called the convicted killer’s death “a failed, agonizing experiment” and added: “The people of the state of Ohio should be appalled at what was done here today in their names.”
McGuire’s lawyers had attempted last week to block his execution, arguing that the untried method could lead to a medical phenomenon known as “air hunger” and cause him to suffer “agony and terror” while struggling to catch his breath.
McGuire, 53, made loud snorting noises during one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999. Nearly 25 minutes passed between the time the lethal drugs began flowing and McGuire was pronounced dead at 10:53 a.m.
Executions under the old method were typically much shorter and did not cause the kind of sounds McGuire made.
Prison officials gave intravenous doses of two drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone, to put McGuire to death for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of a pregnant newlywed, Joy Stewart.
The method was adopted after supplies of a previously used drug dried up because the manufacturer declared it off limits for capital punishment.
The execution is certain to launch a new round of federal lawsuits over Ohio’s injection procedure. The state has five more executions scheduled this year, with the next one to come on Feb. 19.
What was particularly unusual Thursday was the five minutes or so that McGuire lay motionless on the gurney after the drugs began flowing, followed by a sudden snort and then more than 10 minutes of irregular breathing and gasping. Normally, movement comes at the beginning and is followed by inactivity.
In pressing for the execution to go ahead, Assistant Ohio Attorney General Thomas Madden had argued that while the U.S. Constitution bans cruel and unusual punishment, “you’re not entitled to a pain-free execution.”
U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost sided with the state. But at the request of McGuire’s lawyers, he ordered officials to photograph and preserve the drug vials, packaging and syringes.
A few minutes before McGuire was put to death, Ohio prison director Gary Mohr said he believed the state’s planning would produce “a humane, dignified execution” consistent with the law.
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Source: The Washington Post, January 16, 2014
