Killer gasps, snorts and takes FIFTEEN minutes to die as he becomes first to be executed with controversial 'air hunger' drug - after last meal of beef, ice cream and chicken
'I'm going to heaven, I'll see you there when you come,' were Dennis McGuire's final words before he succumbed to the lethal injection
He was pronounced dead at 10:53 a.m. after one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999
McGuire's stomach rose and fell several times as he repeatedly opened and shut his mouth
His adult children sobbed a few feet away in a witness room as they watched him die, his daughter exclaimed 'Oh my God'
The two-drug combination was used after supplies of the state's previous drug dried up
McGuire's attorneys argued the cocktail would cause 'air hunger,' which sees someone experience panic and terror as they strain to breathe
He ate a last meal of roast beef, a cream cheese bagel, fried chicken, potatoes two ways, butter pecan ice cream and Coca-Cola Wednesday
McGuire, 53, was sentenced to die for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart in Preble County in western Ohio
ByHelen Pow
PUBLISHED: 09:23 EST, 16 January 2014 | UPDATED: 12:58 EST, 16 January 2014
A condemned Ohio killer gasped, snorted and snored during a prolonged execution using a controversial, never-before-tried lethal injection this morning.
Death row inmate Dennis McGuire took 15 minutes to die by the two-drug combination, a method adopted after supplies of the state's previous drug dried up, and declared that he was going to Heaven before succumbing to the cocktail.
'I'm going to heaven, I'll see you there when you come,' he said in the small, windowless room in the Lucasville correctional facility. He was pronounced dead at 10:53 a.m., after one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999.
McGuire thanked his 22-year-old victim's family for a letter he received from them, referring to 'kind words' that meant a lot. Joy Stewart's sister Carol Avery wrote in the note that she had forgiven him but also insisted 'it is time - past time - for him to pay for what he did to my sister.'
The 53-year-old opened and shut his hands as if waving to his adult son, daughter and daughter-in-law sitting a few feet away and a full minute later he stood up and told them, 'I love you, I love you.'
Execution: Death row inmate Dennis McGuire, pictured, became the first prisoner executed in the U.S. by the two-drug combination, a method adopted after supplies of the state's previous drug dried up
He was then still for five minutes before emitting a loud snort as if snoring and continued to make this noise for several minutes.
His stomach rose and fell several times as he repeatedly opened and shut his mouth.
The Columbus Dispatch described the noise as 'deep, rattling sounds' emanating from his mouth.
His family sobbed as they watched him slowly die. At one point, his daughter exclaimed 'Oh my God' as she observed her father's final moments.
A coughing sound was Dennis McGuire's last apparent movement, at 10:43 a.m. He was pronounced dead 10 minutes later.
Previous executions with the former execution drugs took much less time, and typically did not include the types of snorts and gasps that McGuire uttered. McGuire as first injected with the drugs at 10:29 a.m.
McGuire's last meal yesterday consisted of roast beef, a cream cheese bagel, fried chicken, potatoes two ways, butter pecan ice cream and Coca-Cola. He skipped a shower and breakfast this morning and had a final visit with his children before the scheduled execution.
On Wednesday, he arrived calmly at the death house and spent the night writing letters, phoning his mother and sister and visiting with his son and daughter.
McGuire's attorneys had warned the convicted rapist and murderer would likely suffer a medical phenomenon known as air hunger, which sees a person experience immense pain and terror as they strain to catch their breath before they die. They argued sentencing him to this manner of death was unconstitutionally cruel but a judge disagreed.
Experimental: McGuire was executed at this facility after an expert testified that he may experience terror as he strains to catch his breath due to Ohio's untested execution method
Punishment: The death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Ohio used intravenous doses of two drugs, midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, to put McGuire to death
Ohio officials used intravenous doses of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone to put McGuire to death. The method has been part of Ohio's execution process since 2009, though never used until now.
The state presented evidence from its own expert disputing the air hunger scenario, and saying McGuire waited far too long to file the appeal, which came earlier this month.
A federal judge sided with the state and gave the green light for the execution to proceed.
At the request of McGuire's lawyers, Judge Gregory Frost on Wednesday also ordered the state to photograph and then preserve the drugs' packaging boxes and vials and the syringes used in the execution.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the anti-capital punishment Death Penalty Information Center, told NBC News after the execution that McGuire's gasps may lead the state or the courts to rethink the new drug combination.
'This doesn�t sound like it was a complete disaster but they don't want anything that even has the appearance of someone suffering or a delay in death being carried out,' Dieter said. 'This is going to be looked at with good concern.'
Victim:
McGuire, 53, was sentenced to die for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart in Preble County in western Ohio. The 22-year-old Stewart was newly married and pregnant It is not unheard of for an execution to take 15 minutes or even longer, but Dieter told the network that if the prisoner was physically struggling much of that time, it could be seen as cruel.
'This sounds like more discomfort than they would want in carrying out an execution,' he said.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute request to delay McGuire's execution on the grounds that a jury never got to hear the full extent of his chaotic and abusive childhood. The court's denial Wednesday included no explanation.
McGuire was sentenced to die for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart in Preble County in western Ohio.
Stewart's slaying went unsolved for 10 months until McGuire, jailed on an unrelated assault and hoping to improve his legal situation, told investigators he had information about the woman's February 12, 1989, death. His attempts to blame the crime on his brother-in-law quickly unraveled and soon he was accused of being 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 Governor John Kasich last month.
New drugs: Ohio officials used intravenous doses of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone to put McGuire, pictured at an undated court hearing, to death
'One can scarcely conceive of a sequence of crimes more shocking to the conscience or to moral sensibilities than the senseless kidnapping and rape of a young, pregnant woman followed by her murder,' Preble County prosecutors said in a filing with the state parole board last month. His attorneys argued McGuire was mentally, physically and sexually abused as a child and had impaired brain function that made him prone to act impulsively.
'Dennis was at risk from the moment he was born,' the lawyers said in a parole board filing. 'The lack of proper nutrition, chaotic home environment, abuse, lack of positive supervision and lack of positive role models all affected Dennis' brain development.'
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show McGuire unsuccessfully sought a reprieve in recent weeks to try to become an organ donor. In November, Kasich granted a death row inmate an eight-month reprieve to let the prison system study his request to donate a kidney to his sister and his heart to his mother.
Kasich said McGuire couldn't identify a family member who would receive his organs, as required under prison policy.
Ohio lost its previous execution drug when the manufacturer put it off limits for capital punishment.
Tragic: In the letter Joy's sister wrote, she described her 10-years-younger, adopted sister as the light of her family's life
In the letter Joy's sister wrote, she described her 10-years-younger, adopted sister as the light of her family's life.
'She was born Christmas Day, 1966 but I haven't spoken to her in more than 24 years. Her voice was silenced on February 11, 1989 when Dennis McGuire brutally ended her life.'
Avery said the soon-to-be mom was excited about the birth of her baby boy, who tragically died too the day of the murder.
'She never got to realize her dreams, never got to hold her baby boy in her arms, never got to kiss his soft cheek, never got to see him smile,' she wrote.
Avery described how the grief following Joy's murder destroyed her parents.
'They never fully recovered and both died knowing that her killer still lived,' she said.
Regarding the contentious lethal injection McGuire was given,
Avery wrote: 'There has been a lot of controversy regarding the drugs that are to be used in his execution, concern that he might feel terror, that he might suffer.
'As I recall the events preceding her death; forcing her from the car, attempting to rape her vaginally, sodomizing her, choking her, stabbing her, leaving her to bleed out: I know she suffered terror and pain.
'He is being treated far more humanely than he treated her.'
Read more: Killer struggles, gasps repeatedly under new 2-drug combination
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