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Ohio governor delays planned execution
using two-drug method
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[February 08, 2014]
By Kim Palmer
CLEVELAND (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.
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 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.
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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)
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