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.