Judge Won't Stop Ohio Execution By Untried Drugs

Associated Press

Updated Mon, Jan 13, 2014 3:58 pm

UPDATE 3:56 p.m. Ohio is opposing a condemned killer's request that the U.S. Supreme Court spare him because a jury never heard the full extent of his chaotic and abusive childhood.

The Ohio Attorney General's Office says death row inmate Dennis McGuire's challenges to his sentence have spanned decades and failed.

They say numerous courts have upheld his sentence and point out that the trial jury heard many details about McGuire's rough boyhood.

The 53-year-old McGuire argues his original lawyers didn't investigate his background thoroughly and make the proper case to the jury.


A federal judge has refused to stop the execution of an Ohio man facing death by a never-tried execution method that the inmate's attorneys allege will cause him agony and terror.

Monday's ruling by Judge Gregory Frost moves condemned killer Dennis McGuire one step closer to execution Thursday by the two-drug method developed after supplies of Ohio's former execution drug dried up.

McGuire's attorneys argue the drugs won't properly sedate McGuire and he'll suffer a syndrome known as air hunger as he struggles to breathe.

The state disputes such a scenario and calls the request an eleventh-hour appeal.

McGuire has also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, arguing a jury never got to hear the full extent of his chaotic and abusive childhood.