--- title: Ohio Executes Murderer With New Drug Cocktail | TIME description: For the first time in the U.S., a prison used a mixture of midazolam and hydromorphone to kill an inmate. Dennis McGuire’s attorney argued he’d suffer needlessly because of a shortage of previously used drugs. canonical: https://time.com/video/z566E0Hs/ og:title: Ohio Executes Murderer With New Drug Cocktail og:description: For the first time in the U.S., a prison used a mixture of midazolam and hydromorphone to kill an inmate. Dennis McGuire’s attorney argued he’d suffer needlessly because of a shortage of previously used drugs. og:url: https://time.com/video/z566E0Hs/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/z566E0Hs/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ohio Executes Murderer With New Drug Cocktail twitter:description: For the first time in the U.S., a prison used a mixture of midazolam and hydromorphone to kill an inmate. Dennis McGuire’s attorney argued he’d suffer needlessly because of a shortage of previously used drugs. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/z566E0Hs/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Ohio Executes Murderer With New Drug Cocktail > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Ohio Executes Murderer With New Drug Cocktail [Watch (HLS stream): Ohio Executes Murderer With New Drug Cocktail](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/z566E0Hs.m3u8) (2:04)  _Published 2014-01-16. For the first time in the U.S., a prison used a mixture of midazolam and hydromorphone to kill an inmate. Dennis McGuire’s attorney argued he’d suffer needlessly because of a shortage of previously used drugs._ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:07 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Tennessee Uses Electric Chair to Execute Blind Man Convicted of 1991 Murder](/video/YMBe1IJx/) ### Tennessee Uses Electric Chair to Execute Blind Man Convicted of 1991 Murder [Death Row Inmate Who Murdered his Mom and Brother Spared Just Minutes Before Execution](/video/OX2GaqZp/) ### Death Row Inmate Who Murdered his Mom and Brother Spared Just Minutes Before Execution [Ohio Inmate’s Family To Sue For Prolonged Execution](/video/jCGHbXAV/) ### Ohio Inmate’s Family To Sue For Prolonged Execution --- ## Transcript The State of Ohio executed an inmate Thursday morning with the first use of a lethal injection that death penalty opponents criticized, saying no one knew how it would work. Convicted of the rape and murder of pregnant woman, Joy Stewart in 1989, Dennis McGuire has been on death row for the last 20 years. The new cocktail is a mix of the sedative midazolam and hydromorphone, a pain killer. >> McGuire's attorneys argued the drugs won't properly sedate him and that he'll suffer a syndrome called air hunger as he struggles to breathe. Now, the reason for these new medications being involved is the European company that makes the pento barbiturate over in Europe said that US prisons are no longer allowed to use this, so they have to go to their backup plan. >> But as Time reports this is actually the backup to the backup. When European manufacturers banned US prisons from buying the anesthetics sodium thiopental for executions in 2011, prisons turn to pentobarbital. Now pentobarbital supplies continue to dwindle as manufacturers have banned it too. The victim's family acknowledged the drug controversy. Joy Stewart was eight months pregnant when she died. We have forgiven McGuire, but that does not negate the need for him to pay for his actions. After describing McGuire's crimes in brutal detail, they also wrote he is being treated far more humanely than he treated her. With the several of the 32 states that allow the death penalty facing a shortage in previously used drugs, CNN questioned how states are getting around the pentobarbital ban. A former defense attorney and the director of Cal Berkeley's Death Penalty Clinic wrote a column for CNN writing lawyers for McGuire contend that he will suffocate to death in agony and terror. The state disagrees, but the truth is that no one knows exactly how McGuire will die. How long it will take or what he will experience in the process. Prison officials gave McGuire the lethal injection at 10: 53 a. m. Eastern Standard time. The Columbus Dispatch reports media witnesses to the execution described McGuire as calm before the injection and showed no signs of agony after it. 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