Ohio killer nears execution with untried method

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Ohio killer nears execution with untried method
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
— Jan. 15, 2014 3:40 PM EST

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The state made preparations Wednesday to use a never-tried lethal drug combination to execute a man for the slaying of a pregnant woman that went unsolved until he inadvertently led authorities to himself.

Jailed on an unrelated assault charge, Dennis McGuire told investigators he had information about the woman's Feb. 12, 1989, death. His attempts to blame the crime on his brother-in-law quickly unraveled and soon he was accused of being the Joy Stewart's killer, according to prosecutors. More than a decade later, DNA evidence confirmed McGuire's guilt, and he acknowledged that he was responsible in a letter to Gov. John Kasich last month.

The state planned to execute McGuire on Thursday with a new process adopted after supplies of its previous drug dried up when the manufacturer put it off limits for capital punishment. The two-drug combination has never been used in a U.S. execution.


Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ohio-killer-nears-execution-untried-method

[ck4829]

1. How innovative... now try using that innovation for curing diseases

[CTyankee]

3. I was about to say how can they "test" a drug given lethally unless they, um, kill somebody with it?

[24601]

11. Yes, soon they will have tested it and will know if it works.

[CTyankee]

12. egg-zackley...

[nobodyspecial]

2. Why don't we just end this barbaric process.

Life in prison. No chance of parole.

[Psephos]

4. Life in prison with no chance of parole is also ruthlessly barbaric.

I am against capital punishment, btw.

[CFLDem]

5. It's not barbaric enough.

Really should be life behind prison with hard labor for restitution until your bones bleach in the hot noon sun.

Now that's some justice.

[Nye Bevan]

16. Nope. Life without parole, in safe, humane conditions,

is a very appropriate punishment for the worst offenders.

[Psephos]

20. There's nothing humane about long-term imprisonment.

I don't know the answers. Better people than me have not found the answers, either.

I'm pointing out that it's arguably more humane to execute them than to dehumanize them by turning them into hopeless and forgotten automata. Anyone who's been held in prison will know what I'm talking about. But the need for revenge runs deep in our species. Torture is satisfying...especially the slow, drip-drip-drip kind.

We lie when we commit acts of brutality under the guise of humanity. It's the same problem that has plagued religions for millennia: belief makes it acceptable to kill, torture or persecute those outside the religion - and makes one feel righteous for doing it.

(Reminder: I am against capital punishment.)

[Nye Bevan]

21. Even in the UK there are prisoners serving life without the possibility of parole.

Some people are simply too evil ever to be released. And people generally are much more amenable to agreeing to abolish the death penalty when life without parole is available as an alternative.

[someone else]

22. I'm against the death penalty also, but if your going to have it,

The constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, but it doesn't guarantee a painless execution.

[Psephos]

23. agreed n/t

[davidpdx]

6. I guess hoping for a last minute stay is asking too much

Kasich is a death penalty supporter.

As of March 2013, Kasich oversaw eight executions in Ohio, while commuting four death sentences

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kasich#Governor_of_Ohio_.282011-Present.29

[Botany]

7. No pity from me.

No matter how this is done it will be too fast and he will feel too little pain.

As long as we have a death penalty Mr. McGuire should be @ the top of
the list to get it.

"Dennis McGuire was convicted of the brutal and horrific stabbing death of Joy Stewart, a 22-year-old
newly married woman who was 30 weeks pregnant with her first baby, in 1989 when McGuire kidnapped,
raped, and stabbed her to death."

[7962]

9. DU needs a "like" button for your post.

[7962]

8. Why the worry? Put 'em in a house with a bad furnace. Fall asleep; die. Done.

Or what about Propophol(sp?)? Thats what killed Michael Jackson, and also what put me to sleep for a colonoscopy. Remember nothing. If you get too much, you dont wake up. No "cruelty" involved. You go to sleep and you DONT WAKE UP.
Why is this shit so hard for people to figure out??

[Botany]

10. I am against the death penalty because it costs too much, it takes too long,

and in many cases the convicted person does not get quality legal help but
that is when you are talking about the d.p. in general terms but when you
get down to individual cases I get much more "hard line.*" (In this case
the killer has confessed to his crimes.)

The death penalty is all about the state killing somebody and we have tried
to sanitize it so the people watching it don't suffer but for the life of me I
don't understand why we do all this song and dance stuff with a lethal injection
because 2 .32 caliber soft nose slugs into the base of the brain would do the
job with no suffering and at very little cost too.

Again if we were to replace the d.p. with life without parole across the country
I would be for that but no matter how much better that would be I don't see that
happening because anybody running for judge or D.A. or sheriff who says that
they oppose the death penalty face a really tough tine getting elected.

* BTW I had a friend murdered because she fought a rapist years ago .... I could
kill that man and still feel worse about the woodchucks that I have to put down that
get into my customers' gardens.

[7962]

14. I think a big solution to the cost would be to take away the "reasonable doubt" instruction

Make the death penalty a punishment only legally applicable to those in which there is NO doubt as to their guilt. There are plenty of those cases. That would also take away the grandstanding of the D.A. and also cut down on valid appeals. Limit appeals to a certain time frame too.
We had a case here where I live that is a prime example. The guy was found guilty in the late 80s. His latest appeal, 2 years ago, was based on poor legal representation. Now, didnt his defenders know this before 25 years later? Of course they did. But they just string appeals to drag it out. Most are not based on innocence.
The problem with life without parole is that we will see so many people saying "Well, he's 65 now, (68,74, whatever) he's no threat to anyone anymore, let him out". Add some infirm inmates and there will now be a cry to release these old, broken down fellows. It will now be cruel to keep an old man in prison.

SO SO sorry to hear about your friend. I had a friend who had her throat slit by a rapist. She survived and her attacker was shot dead in the street by the cops shortly after her attack. Compared to your friend, she was "lucky". Was your friends killer caught?

[jmowreader]

13. It's too dangerous to use Propofol in an execution

Missouri was actually thinking about trying it: their state prison accidentally got shipped a box of Propofol shortly after the drug killed Michael Jackson. Naturally, the first thing that went through their heads was "hey! We can execute three prisoners with this much propofol!" And they rewrote their execution protocol to use this product.

The problem is it's made in Germany and the European Union prohibits exporting drugs to countries that use them in executions. After the EU promised to cut off America's propofol supply and the anesthesiologists of America wrote to Governor Nixon asking that he reconsider, Missouri returned the propofol to the supplier.

Propofol makes surgery safer. If legitimate users can't get it, a lot of people are going to die.

[7962]

15. Well, dammit man. Didnt know that it was an import. Foiled again.

But I bet we could use something similar that has been in use before that came along.
I wouldnt want to risk losing that one; it sure worked great for me. And it cleared my system very fast. I was back to normal in under 2 hours. I know people who had something different years ago and they were groggy most of the day.

[jmowreader]

18. Turns out ALL injected anesthetics are made overseas

I keep saying it: firing squad is the execution method of the future.

[Nye Bevan]

17. Barbaric, disgusting, shameful and embarrassing (nt)

[Alamuti Lotus]

19. Just ship him off to West Virginia and have him sample the water, shouldn't take long.. *nt