Ohio inmate claims lethal-drug tolerance

May 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

A condemned Ohio inmate facing execution this week says his tolerance to a lethal injection drug could lead to a painful execution that would deprive him of his constitutional rights.

Michael Beuke, scheduled to die Thursday for fatally shooting a man while hitchhiking almost three decades ago, made his claim in a last-minute court filing Friday.

In his motion, Beuke asked U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost to stop the execution because it could deny him the quick and painless death promised by Ohio law and could constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution.

In the unusual legal maneuver, Beuke says a barbiturate he takes for a seizure disorder could limit the effectiveness of midazolam, the first drug called for in Ohio’s backup execution method that injects drugs into muscles.

It’s a twist on a similar argument made last month by another Ohio death-row inmate who claimed he had an allergy to anesthesia that could affect his execution. The federal courts rejected Darryl Durr’s claim and he was executed April 20.

Beuke says the tolerance to midazolam caused by his phenobarbitol prescription will slow the rate at which he falls asleep.

As a result, he will experience possible side effects of the painkiller hydromorphone, the second drug used in the backup method and meant to cause death, his attorneys argued.

Those side effects could include nausea, vomiting, combativeness, anxiety, fear, disorientation and other emotions, which could also mean Beuke wouldn’t understand what was happening to him, according to the filing.

Ohio adopted the backup method last year when it switched to a single dose of a powerful anesthetic as its primary execution method. The backup method has never been used.

Beuke, 48, was sentenced to die for the 1983 murder of Robert Craig, a driver he shot while hitchhiking in southwest Ohio.