Andrew Welsh-Huggins Posts

A federal judge has extended a months-long moratorium on executions in Ohio into next year as questions mount about the effectiveness of a new, two-drug combination being used to carry out the death penalty. The ruling by federal judge Gregory Frost will delay executions scheduled for September, October and November and highlights the ongoing problem faced by states in obtaining drugs to put inmates to death.

A condemned Ohio inmate appeared to gasp several times and took more than 15 minutes to die Thursday as he was executed with a combination of drugs never before tried in the U.S.

A condemned Ohio killer set to be put to death by a never-tried lethal injection method spent the night before his scheduled execution talking on the phone and writing letters, a prisons spokeswoman said Thursday.