US: Ohio increases execution drug levels after row

[webfact]

Ohio increases execution drug levels after row

(BBC) The US state of Ohio plans to increase the dosage of death-penalty drugs after a murderer took nearly half an hour to die from a new cocktail of chemicals.

Lawyers for Dennis McGuire, 53, have argued he suffered an "agonising" death violating his constitutional rights.

But an official review determined he was asleep and did not experience pain.

The state will increase the amount of sedative and painkiller used in the two-drug injection, however, to "allay any remaining concerns".

'Constitutional manner'
McGuire "did not experience pain, distress or air hunger after the drugs were administered or when the bodily movements and sounds occurred," according to a Department of Rehabilitation and Correction review.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27199076


-- BBC 2014-04-29

[Langsuan Man]

Witnesses said McGuire - who raped and killed a pregnant woman in 1989 - gasped for up to 26 minutes on 16 January before he died from the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone.

I wonder how long the rape and murder of the pregnant woman in 1989 took ?

[Tatsujin]

McGuire "did not experience pain, distress or air hunger" . . . pity . . . that scum should have died in agony

[lomatopo]

Talk about a misleading headline...I assumed that the State of Ohio was stocking up on these lethal injection drugs as they are getting harder to source. Now I see they're just upping the "dosage". You'd think they;d have mastered this by now? Might be time to revert to the electric chair, gas chamber, firing squad, noose or stoning?

[X pat]

I still beleave in the old style public hangings as a deterrent to crime.

[Ulysses G.]

I'm pretty sure that this murderer was unconscious while he was dying. What is the problem?

[lucjoker]

they want him to have a painless death ?

I wish him 100 fold the pain of his victim !

So lower the dose ,or i start crying.

[lomatopo]

I still beleave in the old style public hangings as a deterrent to crime.

I think public stoning would be an even stronger deterrent? Plus everyone could get their suppressed anger out. The State could sell the stones to increase revenue.

If you really want a deterrent, executions should be broadcast on live TV, and citizens of all ages should be encouraged, perhaps required, to watch.

Relatives of the victims should be allowed to administer the punishment, if they so desire.

This namby-pamby lethal injection method of putting the convicted gently to sleep before overdosing them with a barbituate is lame. Just get Old Testament on these people - hopefully they are truly guilty, but even if a few innocents get executed who really cares - and be done with it.

[how241]

they want him to have a painless death ?

I wish him 100 fold the pain of his victim !

So lower the dose ,or i start crying.

+1...Why worry if he feels a little pain. I'm sure his victims felt LOTS of pain.

[Frank James]

Hang 'em high, huh guys?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1JOFhfoAD4&feature=player_detailpage

[coma]

So we're back on schedule ?

[lomatopo]

After thinking about it, I'm leaning towards public beheading. Something like they do in Game of Thrones, with a huge sword. Then put the head up on a pole. That should deter people.

How many people did Henry VIII have beheaded? ~ 50,000? That's the way to run a country.

If not that, then hanging like they do in Iran.

But whatever it is, it's got to be live, on TV, and everyone has to watch it, including little kids. That should scare everyone straight.

[wilgoster]

Governments must move away from killing period. - first and foremost USA, if they ever hope to reclaim the moral high ground they once occupied. (pipe that dream)

[rgs2001uk]

Way to go state of Ohio, how about reducing the dosage, pity this prick didnt suffer for at least 5 hours.

Other states are you getting this?

[Tchooptip]

When I read those ruthless comments, I am afraid, some men, really, do not have a beautiful soul

[Pigdog474]

I still beleave in the old style public hangings as a deterrent to crime.

I think public stoning would be an even stronger deterrent? Plus everyone could get their suppressed anger out. The State could sell the stones to increase revenue.

If you really want a deterrent, executions should be broadcast on live TV, and citizens of all ages should be encouraged, perhaps required, to watch.

Relatives of the victims should be allowed to administer the punishment, if they so desire.

This namby-pamby lethal injection method of putting the convicted gently to sleep before overdosing them with a barbituate is lame. Just get Old Testament on these people - hopefully they are truly guilty, but even if a few innocents get executed who really cares - and be done with it.

So you wouldn't object, it would be OK to executed you for a crime you didn't commit. what the hell, who really cares

[Mosha]

Governments must move away from killing period. - first and foremost USA, if they ever hope to reclaim the moral high ground they once occupied. (pipe that dream)

I say it's a pity Brady and Hindley were not caught a few months earlier in the UK..

[Oxpilot]

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Governments must move away from killing period. - first and foremost USA, if they ever hope to reclaim the moral high ground they once occupied. (pipe that dream)

I say it's a pity Brady and Hindley were not caught a few months earlier in the UK..

I think a killing is fair punishment for a killer. In Utah it is by firing squad.

[Chicog]

They are a bunch of idiots though, it seems they were buying these drugs from some right dodgy sources and didn't really understand how they worked.

[Thai at Heart]

Governments must move away from killing period. - first and foremost USA, if they ever hope to reclaim the moral high ground they once occupied. (pipe that dream)

If a country is going to have capital punishment I fail to see the issue of whether its painless or not being of particular issue. His victims felt pain, why shouldn't he.

Who said that UsA believed it had the moral high ground on anything?

[GentlemanJim]

I don't get it. If we think it is acceptable to throw a nerve agent at an enemy soldier,( who after all is doing nothing other than the job he was told to do), knowing it will kill him in minutes as an absolute certainty, why are we messing around with these schoolboy cocktails of chemicals. There are chemicals that will kill you stone dead in seconds never mind minutes. Potassium Cyanide in the vein and it's goodnight vienna before the minute is up.

I am not sure I am an advocate of the death penalty, but if you are going to do it stop thinking you can apply some morals to it. How does someone who commits an atrocity like this man have a constitutional right to anything. Why should he have the right to die without gasping for air? The same people pondering this dichotomy in favour of the murderer are the ones who turned a Christmas Tree in to a Holiday Tree. Mad mad mad, Cyanide...boom game over, stop testing on rats...nerve agent...boom game over, guaranteed no sudden gasps for air after 10 mins lasting for 26 mins. It would be lights out! If he twitches and gasps for air as he dies that will give him something in common with 85% of the rest of us who will twitch and gasp for air when we die. When the West starts concerning themselves for the victim as much as they do the criminal we will be progressing somewhere.