Documentary includes troubling Ohio execution

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

A new documentary on the death penalty includes the work a federal public defender did on an Ohio execution that lasted 26 minutes while the inmate repeatedly gasped and snorted.

“The Penalty” tells three capital punishment-related stories. They include that of a recently exonerated death-row inmate and a homicide victim’s family trying to negotiate the legal system.

A third story examines the 2014 execution of Dennis McGuire using a never tried two-drug process that Ohio has since abandoned.

The film follows federal public defender Allen Bohnert in his unsuccessful fight to stop McGuire’s execution.

Screenings are scheduled in several Ohio cities beginning today to include Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton and Columbus.