COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge refused Monday to stop the upcoming execution of a condemned Ohio killer facing a never-tried lethal injection process that the inmate’s lawyers say will cause him agony and terror.
Judge Gregory Frost’s ruling moved Dennis McGuire one step closer to execution by the two-drug method developed after supplies of Ohio’s former execution drug dried up. Governor John Kasich and the Ohio Parole Board have both rejected McGuire’s plea for clemency.
The judge said McGuire had failed to present evidence that he would suffer breathing problems alleged by his lawyers — a phenomenon known as ‘‘air hunger’’ — and said the risk to McGuire is within constitutional limits.
The case is the latest of several in Ohio involving whether use of a lethal drug will create an unconstitutionally cruel death.
Last year, 450-pound inmate Ronald Post argued he was so overweight he could not be put to death humanely. Double-killer Richard Cooey made a similar argument in 2008. In 2010, serial rapist Darryl Durr argued he might be violently allergic to Ohio’s execution drug.
McGuire, 53, is scheduled to die Thursday for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart in Preble County in western Ohio.