Ohio Facing Lawsuit Over Twenty-Five Minute Execution That Used New Combination of Drugs

Last night’s apparently botched

execution of Dennis McGuire, which lasted more than
20 minutes, is leading to wider consequences for the death
penalty in Ohio,
including a lawsuit.

From the AP:

Ohio’s capital punishment system is likely to face new
challenges following an unusually long execution in which the
condemned man appeared to gasp several times.

Family members of death row inmate Dennis McGuire planned
a Friday news conference to announce a lawsuit over McGuire’s
death, which they are calling unconstitutional. And it’s almost
certain lawyers will use McGuire’s Thursday execution to challenge
Ohio’s plans to put a condemned Cleveland-area killer to death next
month.

Ohio switched to a new drug for its lethal injections late last year,
after running out of pentobarbital, whose manufacturer stopped
selling it for use in administering the death penalty.
 McGuire is the third death row inmate to be executed in the
U.S. this year.

Ohio is one of 32 U.S. states with the death penalty on the
books, all of which primarily use lethal injections. The last
person to be killed by another means was
Robert Gleason in Virginia, who chose the electric chair and
was executed last year after killing two fellow prisoners in
jail.

More Reason on the death penalty.

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