Ohio state officials executed a convicted killer and rapist on Thursday using a never-tried, two-drug lethal injection method for the rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart in Preble County, Ohio in 1989.
Dennis McGuire reportedly took more than 15 minutes to die, gasping several times before passing away Thursday as he was put down with a combination of drugs never before tried in the U.S.
The condemned Ohio inmate reportedly made several loud snoring or snorting sounds during one of Ohio's longest executions since the state permitted capital punishment in 1999.
Ohio state authorities used intravenous doses of the painkiller hydromorphone and the sedative midazolam to execute McGuire for the raping and stabbing pregnant Joy Stewart to death in 1989.
McGuire's grown children witnessed the execution, weeping a few feet away in the witness area as they looked on at the Ohio state death house in Lucasville.
Before the execution, the Ohio inmate thanked the victim's family for a letter he reportedly received from them, pointing out "kind words" he said meant a lot to him. "I'm going to heaven, I'll see you there when you come," McGuire said.
In an attempt to stop the execution, McGuire's lawyers argued that the 53-year-old inmate was at substantial risk of "air hunger," a medical phenomenon which could result to "agony and terror" as the victim strained to catch his breath.
Ohio adopted the two-drug combination method after supplies of the drug previously used for executions dried up.
The 54-year-old inmate allegedly opened and shut his left hand during the execution as if waving to his son, daughter and daughter-in-law. Several long seconds later, McGuire raised himself up from the stretcher, looked in the direction of the witness room where his family stood and said, "I love you. I love you."
The Ohio killer went completely still for nearly five minutes before emitting a loud snort similar to snoring and continuing to make that sound for the next several minutes. McGuire also opened and shut his mouth many times without making a sound as his stomach lifted and fell.
"Oh my God," said Amber McGuire, his daughter as she witnessed her dad's last moments.
The last apparent movement recorded of Dennis McGuire was a coughing sound made at 10:43 a.m. 10 minutes later the Ohio inmate was pronounced dead.
Previous executions performed using the former drugs reportedly took less time compared to the new two-drug combinastion, and normally did not produce the types of gasps and snorts that Dennis McGuire uttered.
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