Debate stirs over suffering during execution in America

The death of a killer who repeatedly gasped and appeared to suffer during his lengthy execution by a new two-drug method has touched off a debate in the US state of Ohio.

Death-row inmate Dennis McGuire snorted, gasped and repeatedly opened and shut his mouth during his 26-minute execution on January 16 by lethal injection. A combination of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, were used in the longest death procedure since Ohio resumed killing inmates in 1999. Eyewitnesses said that McGuire appeared to be unconscious while making the noises.

A news report said McGuire told guards that state public defender Robert Lowe had counselled him to make a show of his death that would, perhaps, lead to abolishing the death penalty, according to prison records released this week. The state public defender's office said an internal review failed to substantiate the coaching allegation.

The public defenders who represented McGuire said the inmate was not coached to fake suffocation or make a show of his death. They said the inmate might have misunderstood an attorney's request that he truthfully communicate what was happening to him during the lethal injection.

"I'm sure that during all those conversations that were had at a very difficult time for Mr McGuire, as you can imagine, that some of the information that was being discussed was clearly misunderstood," public defender Allen Bohnert said.

The prisoner's legal team has asked the state's governor, John Kasich, to impose a moratorium on capital punishment.