On January 10, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost will con­sid­er a chal­lenge to an exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dure in Ohio that has nev­er been used before in the coun­try. Dennis McGuire is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on January 16, and his attor­neys are argu­ing the new drugs could cause a very painful death, say­ing, ​“McGuire will expe­ri­ence the agony and ter­ror of air hunger as he strug­gles to breathe for five min­utes after [exe­cu­tion­ers] intra­venous­ly inject him with the exe­cu­tion drugs.” The new lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure will use mida­zo­lam, a seda­tive, and hydro­mor­phone, a painkiller. Judge Frost has heard pri­or chal­lenges to Ohio’s exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures and has crit­i­cized the state for car­ry­ing out hap­haz­ard exe­cu­tions and not ade­quate­ly fol­low­ing its own protocols.

The drugs that Ohio plans to use were includ­ed in a back­up pro­ce­dure that the state pro­posed in 2009.

In a sep­a­rate appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, McGuire’s attor­neys say McGuire suf­fered severe abuse as a child and that infor­ma­tion like­ly would have caused the jury to hand down a less­er sen­tence if it had been pre­sent­ed at trial.

(A. Welsh-Huggins, ​“Dennis McGuire Could Be The First US Inmate Put To Death With New Drug Combo,” Associated Press, January 10, 2014). See Lethal Injection and Representation.

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