Ohio to execute convicted killer using new two-drug method

By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) – An Ohio man convicted of the 1989 rape and murder of a pregnant woman is set to be executed on Thursday using a new two-drug lethal injection method the state adopted last year. Dennis McGuire, 53, is scheduled to be put to death at a state prison in Ohio on Thursday morning using a combination of the sedative midazolam and pain killer hydromorphone, according to the state corrections department. Ohio added the two-drug combination for lethal injections as a substitute after it had difficulty obtaining pentobarbital, a drug whose manufacturer has objected to its use in executions. A federal judge on Monday rejected McGuire’s appeal that the drug combination never tried in the United States would put him at a substantial risk of severe pain.