Ohio's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced on Friday that it will postpone all six executions scheduled for 2015, because it needs more time to develop a new execution drug formula, Reuters reports.
In January 2014, Ohio executed Dennis McGuire using a combination of midazolam and hydromorphone; witnesses reported that McGuire's execution took 25 minutes, during which he gasped and seized for 15 minutes. The state halted use of the two-drug combination, but it also passed a law in December 2014 providing confidentiality to pharmacies that prepare the lethal drug formulas. Four death row inmates filed a lawsuit, saying their right to due process is violated by the new law.
The state's decision to postpone its scheduled executions comes just days after the Supreme Court agreed to temporarily block the executions of three Oklahoma inmates challenging that state's lethal-injection formula.
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