- '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
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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 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 apparently received from them, referring to 'kind words' that meant a lot.
He also 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 said, 'I love you, I love you' to them.
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 sound for several minutes.
Deep, rattling sounds eminated from his mouth, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
His stomach rose and fell several times as he repeatedly opened and shut his mouth while 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.
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.
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
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.'
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.
'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.
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