Anesthesiologist Calls Ohio Execution ​“Inhumane”

The lethal injection of Dennis McGuire in Ohio in January “was not a humane execution,” according to Dr. Kent Dively (pictured), a San Diego anesthesiologist who examined records related to the execution, which took nearly 30 minutes to complete. Dr. Dively made the statement in an affidavit related to a civil rights suit filed by McGuire’s children. McGuire was the first person in the country to be executed using a combination of midazolam and hydromorphone. Dively stated, “Neither of these drugs combined in the doses used can be depended upon to produce a rapid loss of consciousness and death.” He continued, “Mr. McGuire was noted to be straining against his restraints, struggling to breathe, and making hand gestures. More likely than not these represent conscious voluntary actions by Mr. McGuire. They exemplify true pain and suffering in the several minutes before he lost consciousness.” He also noted that Ohio’s execution protocol states that all executions will be carried out in a “professional, humane, sensitive, and dignified manner,” and said the state failed to meet its own standards: “These drugs do not fulfill the criteria set forth by the state of Ohio. They do not provide for an execution in a professional, humane, sensitive, and dignified manner. Allowing the inmate to suffer for a prolonged period struggling to get free and gasping for air before death certainly is not dignified nor humane.” He recommended the state “reconsider the drug combinations they are currently employing. Otherwise other inmates in the future could suffer egregious inhumane deaths like Mr. McGuire.”

(A. Johnson, “Dennis McGuire’s execution was not ‘humane,’ doctor says,” Columbus Dispatch, August 13, 2014; Medical Report, Kent Dively, M.D., Aug. 4, 2014). Executions in Ohio are on hold as a federal court reviews proposed changes to the execution protocol. See Lethal Injection and New Voices.