Unclear future for executions

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The long and fitful execution of an Ohio inmate with an untested combination of chemicals brought cries of cruel and unusual punishment Friday and could further narrow the options for other states that are casting about for new lethal injection drugs.

A gasping, snorting Dennis McGuire took 26 minutes to die after the chemicals began flowing Thursday — the longest execution of the 53 carried out in Ohio since capital punishment resumed 15 years ago, according to an Associated Press analysis.

McGuire’s adult children complained it amounted to torture, with the convicted killer’s son, also named Dennis, saying: “Nobody deserves to go through that.”

Whether McGuire felt any pain was unclear. But Ohio’s experience could influence the decisions made in the 31 other lethal-injection states, many of which have been forced in the past few years to rethink the drugs they use.

States are in a bind for two main reasons: European companies have cut off supplies of certain execution drugs because of opposition to capital punishment in Europe. And states can’t simply switch to other chemicals without triggering legal challenges from defense attorneys.

“There’s only so many times you can say we’re going to try a new method, or try something different, where at this point it’s just going to invite a lot of skepticism,” said Fordham University law professor and lethal injection expert Deborah Denno.

She added: “There’s a dead-end we’ve never seen before with lethal injection.”

In light of what happened in Ohio, “states will now have more of a burden to show that they are using a well-thought-out best practice,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

Ohio’s prison system is reviewing McGuire’s execution and declined to comment on the amount of time it took him to die from the two-drug combination, which had never been used before in a U.S. execution. McGuire, 53, was given both a sedative and a painkiller.

Most Ohio inmates executed since 1999 took 15 minutes or less to die, records show. In years when Ohio used a three-drug combination, many inmates died in less than 10 minutes, according to the records.

McGuire, who was sentenced to die for raping and stabbing to death a pregnant newlywed in 1989, appeared unconscious but gasped repeatedly as he lay on a gurney, his stomach rising and falling and his mouth opening and shutting.

States have been hit with a series of setbacks as they attempt to refine lethal injection.