By Kim Palmer
CLEVELAND, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Ohio on Friday delayed its next
scheduled execution to complete a review of a new two-drug
combination that left a condemned inmate convulsing and
appearing to struggle for breath for several minutes as he was
put to death in January.
Gregory Lott, 52, had been scheduled to die March 19 by a
lethal injection of the same combination of the sedative
midazolam and the pain killer hydromorphone that Ohio had used
in the January execution.
Ohio Governor John Kasich delayed Lott’s execution date to
November to give the state prison department time to complete a
review of that execution, spokesman Rob Nichols said.
Lott was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of
John McGrath, 82, who was set on fire in 1986.
Ohio and other states that have the death penalty have
increasingly been forced to look for alternate drugs and sources
of drugs for executions as pharmaceutical companies have raised
objections to their products being used in capital punishment.
Ohio turned to the two-drug combination to execute Dennis
McGuire in mid-January. Witnesses said McGuire appeared to be
gasping for breath before he died. It was the first time the
combination had been used to execute an inmate in the United
States.
McGuire’s children, who witnessed the execution, have sued
Ohio, alleging the state violated his Constitutional right for
protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
The delay in Lott’s execution came days after a federal
judge ordered Louisiana to delay by at least 90 days the
execution of inmate Christopher Sepulvado.
Louisiana had also planned to use a combination of midazolam
and hydromorphone to execute Sepulvado, who was convicted of
killing his 6-year-old stepson.
(Reporting by Kim Palmer in Cleveland; Editing by David Bailey,
Eric M. Johnson and Ken Wills)
