Ohio is set to conduct its first execution in 3 years


Ohio is scheduled to execute Ronald Phillips, 43, on Wednesday after his final appeal attempt to the Supreme Court was rejected. Phillips was convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend's young daughter in 1993.
This will be the state's first use of capital punishment in three years after a 2014 execution by lethal injection took five times as long as anticipated and caused the inmate, Dennis McGuire, visible distress. "He started struggling for breath," said Father Lawrence Hummer, who witnessed the botched execution. "I was trying to calm his children down when all of a sudden I heard audible gagging. I thought it was another witness, but when I looked back to [McGuire], he was the one gagging."
Anti-death penalty protesters have assembled outside the prison where Phillips is held. The execution was originally set for 10 a.m. Eastern, but it was slightly delayed to give Phillips more time to visit with his family.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.