Execution of Dennis McGuire

The execution led to an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment in Ohio for over three years. McGuire's family filed a civil rights lawsuit against the state and an Illinois drug company. The lawsuit was later dropped by the family after the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced it would abandon the execution method it had used on McGuire. The state did not carry out another execution until July 2017.

It took over three years before Ohio planned to resume executions with a new, three-drug combination: midazolam, rocuronium bromide, and potassium chloride. The combination was FDA-approved. In July 2017, convicted murderer Ronald Philips was the next person to be executed after McGuire, using the new three-drug combination.

The execution of Dennis McGuire occurred on January 16, 2014, at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, in what was considered to be a botched execution. McGuire was executed via lethal injection using a new combination of untried and untested drugs: midazolam and hydromorphone. During the execution, witnesses reported that McGuire could be seen struggling to breathe, and reportedly gasped loudly while making snorting and choking sounds for at least ten minutes. It took over twenty-five minutes for McGuire to die, in a process that should normally take just over eight minutes.

McGuire spent over nineteen years on death row until his execution date, which was scheduled for January 16, 2014. In September 2013, the state of Ohio ran out of the drug pentobarbital. The drug, originally manufactured in Denmark, was subject to strict export licenses that prevented it being sold to departments of correction within the United States. European-based manufacturers banned prisons in the United States from using their drugs in executions. Because of this, the state of Ohio was forced to use a new combination of drugs to execute McGuire.

At 10:28 a.m. on the morning of January 16, 2014, at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, McGuire was injected with both drugs after he gave a final statement. According to a witness at the execution, four minutes into the procedure, McGuire could be seen struggling and gasping loudly for air. He made snorting and choking sounds, which lasted for at least ten to fifteen minutes. At 10:53 a.m., McGuire was pronounced dead. The execution took over twenty-five minutes, in a process that should have normally taken around eight. It was the longest execution ever recorded in Ohio.

McGuire knew details about the crime that had not been made public, making investigators take his allegation seriously. However, as new details emerged, it became apparent that McGuire had been the actual perpetrator. DNA testing carried out in 1992 proved that McGuire had raped and murdered Stewart. On December 22, 1993, McGuire was charged with one count of aggravated murder, two counts of rape, and one count of kidnapping. On December 8, 1994, McGuire was found guilty of all charges, and the jury recommended a death sentence.

Dennis B. McGuire (February 10, 1960 – January 16, 2014) was sentenced to death on December 8, 1994, for the 1989 rape and murder of 22-year-old Joy Stewart in West Alexandria, Ohio. Stewart disappeared on February 11, 1989, and her body was found by two hikers the following day in the woods near Bantas Creek. An autopsy was performed, and it was determined she had died from having her throat cut by a knife, which had severed her carotid artery and jugular vein. No leads came in for the case until December 1989, when McGuire, who was in prison for an unrelated crime, spoke with police, and told them that his brother-in-law had murdered Stewart.