By Juliana McLeod, News Staff
Capital punishment: not a topic most people tend to dwell on. We do not like to think of the infamous cocktail that ends inmates’ lives, the drugs that have the ability to stop a pulse in minutes.
But what happens when we try to alter this cocktail? Do we worry about the inmates or is this a topic we do not touch?
In 1994, Dennis McGuire was convicted in the rape and murder of a pregnant woman named Joy Stewart, a crime that landed him on death row in Ohio. Yet what is different about McGuire’s case is that he became an experiment for an alteration in his execution cocktail.
Ohio recently ran out of the drug they previously used for executions, which has been made unavailable by its Danish manufacturers. The state’s solution? A combination of two drugs that have never before been used in a US execution: midazolam and hydromorphone.
The test did not go well for McGuire.
Reuters reported that the inmate “gasped and convulsed violently” for about 10 minutes before the cocktail killed him.
If this were not bad enough, an anesthesiologist warned the state not to give the two-drug mix to McGuire because the drugs used as well as the dosage would cause excessive harm to the inmate. Surprise – the anesthesiologist may have known what he was talking about.
But should the public be concerned about this? After all, this man did sexually abuse a seven months pregnant woman before ending her life. She had to endure many minutes of pain and suffering, which was just the case for McGuire at the end of his life. It epitomizes the saying, “What goes around comes around.”
Yes, McGuire committed a terrible crime and showed no mercy to his victim. And yes, it was duly decided that his life should be ended for those actions. But did part of his punishment consist of being a guinea pig? Does the law really allow a human being to be the subject of a test?
On top of that, our system becomes no better than McGuire if we punish him for torturing someone by torturing him as well.
For the answer, we turn to the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits the federal government and states like Ohio from inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on any person and promises protection from this. The Constitution is proof of this promise made over 200 years ago. A promise that I believe was broken Jan. 14.
A veterinarian would not administer a drug to a dog before testing it, but apparently an inmate does not deserve that same grace. It comes across as if no one cared. No one bothered to take the time to test the drug and determine whether 10 minutes of pain was reasonable.
Was there no concern because McGuire was an inmate, the quarantined of our society? He is still part of our country and deserves to be protected by the government in all ways owed to him. Admittedly, it is the government that would cause his death. But it would not be on the government to cause his torture as well.
Yet that was what happened.
Now, the question is whether Ohio will make amends to the distressing drug mix. If the state has to find yet another drug, I am sure the inmates won’t be complaining. They are not going anywhere.
But let us not lose ourselves in this situation. Let us not shrug off McGuire’s shuddering and convulsing because he had horrendous crimes tied to his name. We still take care of our people and do not give someone a torturous concoction before testing the mix.
McGuire’s family is now suing for inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on the inmate, which I completely understand. Although there was no ultimate proof that McGuire’s execution would cause him pain, it was cruel and unusual on the government’s part to put the inmate through this experiment with a mystery ending. Such treatment of a human being should not be tolerated.
So, in the end, what started out as McGuire being the inflictor of horrid actions has resulted in Ohio as the inflictor.
Well, what goes around comes around.
-Juliana McLeod can be reached at [email protected]
