Ohio killer executed with new lethal drug combo


January 16, 2014 at 12:06p.m.

Ohio killer executed with new lethal drug combo

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A condemned Ohio inmate appeared to gasp several times and took more than 15 minutes to die Thursday as he was executed with a combination of drugs never before tried in the U.S.

Death row inmate Dennis McGuire made several loud snorting or snoring sounds during one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999.

Ohio officials used 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 woman, Joy Stewart.

The state had adopted the new execution method after supplies of another execution drug dried up because the manufacturer put it off limits for capital punishment.