An Ohio inmate named Dennis McGuire took fifteen minutes to die after gasping several times on death row on Thursday January 16^th. In 1994, Dennis McGuire was convicted for the rape and murder of Joy Stewart, and her family members and relatives were at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility to witness his death.

            Dennis McGuire was killed from lethal injection. The execution has created controversy because Ohio was required to discover new drug protocols after European grounded manufacturers banned United States prisons from using their drugs in executions. The state used a mixture of the drugs midazolam, a calming substance, and an analgesic hydromorphone. McGuire’s attorneys argued that he would “suffocate to death in agony and terror.” The state disagreed, even though the real truth is that nobody knew how McGuire would die, or how his experience during the event would be. Nobody knew how long the event would last either, so McGuire’s death was oddly experimental.

            The state of Ohio was arranged to execute the death row inmate Ron Phillips, exercising the new drugs last year, but Governor John Kasich allowed the sentenced killer to ignore the execution because of a review from a possible organ donation to his family members.

            According to the corrections department website, there are currently 139 men and one woman on death row in Ohio. There are many arguments against experimenting with the new drug mixtures. Death penalty supporters believe that the new drugs were a good idea while many others have disagreed. Everything remains unconfirmed, and it may stay that way.