Ohio Still Isn’t Ready to Start Killing People Again

A moratorium on executions in Ohio that was set to expire this week has been extended by a federal judge, halting future lethal injections in the state at least until next year.

On Aug. 8, Judge Gregory Frost issued a one-page order extending the moratorium, the Associated Press reports. The temporary freeze was put in place after the prolonged execution of Dennis McGuire, who was sentenced to death for a 1989 rape and murder. In January, McGuire appeared to gasp and snore after being given a two-drug combination of midazolam and hydromorphone that had not been previously used in a lethal injection.

In April, Ohio announced that it would increase the dosages of the two execution drugs. The following month, Frost issued a temporary stay of executions as the state re-examined its lethal injection protocol. The latest order delays three planned executions for September, October and November as legal challenges continue over the two-drug method.

McGuire’s lethal injection was the first of three executions around the U.S. this year that appeared to go awry. In April, the convicted killer Clayton Lockett died of a heart attack after writhing and twitching following his injection with an untested blend of drugs. And on July 23rd, Arizona’s execution of convicted murderer Joseph Wood, using the same drug protocol as Ohio did for McGuire, lasted nearly two hours.