"Killer struggles, gasps repeatedly under new 2-drug combination," is Alan Johnson's post for the Columbus Dispatch.
Dennis McGuire struggled, repeatedly gasping loudly for air and making snorting and choking sounds, before succumbing to a new two-drug execution method today.
The 24-minute execution process was a “failed, agonizing experiment by the state of Ohio,” said one of the killer’s attorneys, Allen Bohnert, a federal public defender.
“The people of the state of Ohio should be appalled by what was done in their name.”
McGuire’s death by lethal injection at 10:53 a.m. may have been marked by the “air hunger” that McGuire’s attorneys feared would occur from the combination of drugs used for the first time in a U.S. execution.
“What we suggested to the court did happen,” said Bohner, who refused to speculate on whether McGuire suffered. He also would not say whether further legal action would be pursued under the U.S. constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment.
After being injected at 10:29 a.m., about four minutes later McGuire started struggling and gasping loudly for air, making snorting and choking sounds which lasted for at least 10 minutes. His chest heaved and his left fist clinched as deep, snorting sounds emanated from his mouth. However, for the last several minutes before he was pronounced dead, he was still.
McGuire's adult children, Amber and Dennis, along with Dennis’ wife, were among those who watched his execution in small, windowless room at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. The three joined arms and sobbed throughout the procedure.
Andrew Welsh-Huggins, AP Legal Affairs Writer, files, "Condemned Ohio killer appears to gasp as new lethal drug combo is used to execute him." It's via the Tribune.
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.
Dennis McGuire's attorney, federal public defender Allen Bohnert, called his client's death "a failed, agonizing experiment by the state of Ohio."
McGuire's attorneys had attempting to halt his execution last week, arguing the untried method put him at substantial risk of "agony and terror" while straining to catch his breath as he experienced a medical phenomenon known as air hunger.
McGuire made several loud snorting or snoring sounds during one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999.
And:
Attorneys for the state called McGuire's bid to halt his execution with the untried method an "eleventh hour" appeal based on claims that should have been raised years ago, because the process had been in place as a backup method.
And although the U.S. Constitution bans executions that constitute cruel and unusual punishment, that doesn't mean procedures are entirely comfortable, an assistant Ohio attorney general argued.
"You're not entitled to a pain-free execution," attorney Thomas Madden told a federal judge.
The judge sided with the state but acknowledged the new method was an experiment. At the request of McGuire's lawyers, Judge Gregory Frost ordered the state to photograph and then preserve the drugs' packaging boxes and vials and the syringes used in the execution.
Initial coverage of the execution is at the link.
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