COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio inmate facing execution next week from an untried method is at substantial risk of a medical phenomenon known as air hunger, which will cause him to experience terror as he strains to catch his breath, an anesthesiologist testified Friday at a federal court hearing. 
 
 Because condemned killer David McGuire has several characteristics of someone with sleep apnea, or the struggle to breathe while asleep, the chances are even greater he will be subjected to feelings of suffocation, said David Waisel, a professor at Harvard Medical School. 
 
 "Mr. McGuire is at a substantial risk of experiencing the terror of air hunger during the first five minutes of the execution," Waisel testified as a witness for defense attorneys trying to stop McGuire's execution Thursday. 
 
 "Air hunger is a horrible feeling," Waisel added. "It's the inability to get your breath." 
 
 Waisel testified at the beginning of a two-day hearing on the state's new lethal drug process. 
 
 Ohio plans to use intravenous doses of two drugs, midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, to put McGuire to death. The method has been part of Ohio's execution process since 2009, though never used. It was chosen because of a shortage of other lethal injection drugs. 
 
 The state says its own anesthesiology expert is ready to argue that experiments have shown nothing of the sort will happen. 
 
 Such dueling arguments have taken place often in federal judge Gregory Frost's courtroom over the years. Frost has heard numerous arguments for and against Ohio's lethal injection process. 
 
 He has never ruled the drugs themselves unconstitutional, but he has at times harshly criticized the state for conducting haphazard executions by not closely following its own policies. 
 
 McGuire, 53, was sentenced to die for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart in Preble County in western Ohio. The 22-year-old Stewart was newly married and pregnant. 
 
 "McGuire will experience the agony and terror of air hunger as he struggles to breathe for five minutes after defendants intravenously inject him with the execution drugs," the inmate's attorneys said in a Monday court filing. 
 
 Higher courts have twice rejected claims that the drugs pose a risk of severe pain, the state argued in opposing McGuire's attempt to stop his execution. 
 
 The state says that because courts have upheld the use of those drugs in the backup method, McGuire can't challenge their use just because they are to be given intravenously. 
 
 There is no excuse for not raising this claim years ago, "much less presenting it for the first time in an eleventh-hour stay of execution," lawyers for the Ohio attorney general's office said in their filing. 
 
 Late Wednesday, McGuire's attorneys filed a separate appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, saying information about his chaotic childhood of abuse and neglect could have prevented him from being sentenced to death if it was presented at trial. 
 
 The filings argue McGuire was so malnourished as a child that his stomach was swollen and distended. He also had to frequently steal food for himself and his younger sister, the appeal said. 
 
 McGuire was physically abused by at least four different parental figures and shows signs of brain damage from head trauma, the attorneys said. 
 
 The filings say jurors who sentenced McGuire to death never got to hear the full extent of his chaotic childhood because his trial attorneys didn't properly investigate reasons he should be spared. 
 
 Even without the full picture of McGuire's life, a juror held out for 12 hours before relenting, a sign that a full investigation might have led to a different outcome, the lawyers said. In Ohio, one juror can block a death sentence by voting against it. 
 
 The state's response to that claim is expected Monday. ||||| AP Photo/Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Undated photo of Dennis McGuire. 
 
 A convicted killer scheduled to be executed Thursday with an untested drug cocktail tried to delay his date with death by offering to become an organ donor after another condemned prisoner won a temporary reprieve with the same request. 
 
 But Ohio Gov. John Kasich turned down two requests from Dennis McGuire because the inmate could not identify a family member that would benefit from his organs, according to documents originally obtained by the Associated Press. 
 
 Kasich earlier granted an eight-month delay to child-murderer Ronald Phillips, who wants to donate a kidney to his mother and his heart to his sister. The state is studying the feasibility. 
 
 Before the governor's reprieve, Phillips, 40, was slated to be the first person in the state executed under a new drug protocol: a combination of the sedative midozolam and the painkiller hydropmorphone. 
 
 But with Phillips awaiting word on possible organ donation, McGuire is now set to become the first to die by the never-tried method, which was adopted after the manufacturer of the primary drug, pentobarbital, stopped selling it to prisons. 
 
 McGuire's lawyers had argued the execution should be scrapped because it could cause a painful and terrifying phenomenon called "air hunger" before death, but a federal judge ruled against them earlier this week. 
 
 McGuire, 53, who was convicted of raping and stabbing to death a pregnant woman in 1989, was moved to Ohio's death house at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and was scheduled to meet with family and friends. 
 
 "Following the visits he will be given his special meal (roast beef, toasted bagel with cream cheese and onion, butter pecan ice cream, fried chicken, potato salad, fried potatoes with onion and Coca-Cola)," according to a statement from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. 
 
 The execution process is slated to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday. ||||| LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio inmate condemned to die appeared to gasp several times during his prolonged execution Thursday with the first use of a lethal injection process never before tried in the U.S. 
 
 Death row inmate Dennis McGuire made several loud snorting or snoring sounds during the more than 15 minutes it appeared to take him to die. It was one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999. 
 
 Ohio officials used intravenous doses of two drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone, to put McGuire to death. The method has been part of Ohio's execution process since 2009, though was never used. 
 
 McGuire's adult children sobbed a few feet away in a witness room as they watched him die at the state death house in Lucasville in southern Ohio. 
 
 "I'm going to heaven, I'll see you there when you come," McGuire said. He opened and shut his left hand several times before the drugs took effect, appearing to wave to his children. 
 
 McGuire's attorneys argued he would experience "agony and terror" as he struggled to breathe, while state attorneys disputed that scenario. A federal judge sided with the state but acknowledged the new method was an experiment. At the request of McGuire's lawyers, Judge Gregory Frost ordered the state to photograph and then preserve the drugs' packaging boxes and vials and the syringes used in the execution. 
 
 McGuire, 53, was sentenced to death for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart in Preble County in western Ohio. The newly married Stewart was eight months pregnant at the time. 
 
 Stewart's slaying went unsolved for 10 months until McGuire, jailed on an unrelated assault and hoping to improve his legal situation, told investigators he had information about the woman's Feb. 12, 1989, death. His attempts to blame the crime on his brother-in-law quickly unraveled and soon he was accused of being the Joy Stewart's killer, according to prosecutors. 
 
 More than a decade later, DNA evidence confirmed McGuire's guilt, and he acknowledged that he was responsible in a letter to Gov. John Kasich last month. 
 
 "One can scarcely conceive of a sequence of crimes more shocking to the conscience or to moral sensibilities than the senseless kidnapping and rape of a young, pregnant woman followed by her murder," Preble County prosecutors said in a filing with the state parole board last month. 
 
 His attorneys argued McGuire was mentally, physically and sexually abused as a child and has impaired brain function that makes him prone to act impulsively. 
 
 "Dennis was at risk from the moment he was born," the lawyers said in a parole board filing. "The lack of proper nutrition, chaotic home environment, abuse, lack of positive supervision and lack of positive role models all affected Dennis' brain development." 
 
 Documents obtained by The Associated Press show McGuire unsuccessfully sought a reprieve in recent weeks to try to become an organ donor. In November, Kasich granted a death row inmate an eight-month reprieve to let the prison system study his request to donate a kidney to his sister and his heart to his mother. 
 
 Kasich said McGuire couldn't identify a family member who would receive his organs, as required under prison policy. 
 
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 Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus ||||| LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A condemned man appeared to gasp several times and took an unusually long time to die — more than 20 minutes — in an execution carried out Thursday with a combination of drugs never before tried in the U.S. 
 
 Federal public defender Allen Bohnert talks about the execution of his client, death row inmate Dennis McGuire, by a never-tried lethal drug process, on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014 at the Southern Ohio Correctional... (Associated Press) 
 
 Dennis McGuire's attorney Allen Bohnert called the convicted killer's execution "a failed, agonizing experiment" and added: "The people of the state of Ohio should be appalled at what was done here today in their names." 
 
 McGuire's lawyers had attempted last week to halt his execution, arguing that the untried method could lead to a medical phenomenon known as "air hunger" and cause him to suffer "agony and terror" while struggling to catch his breath. 
 
 McGuire, 53, made loud snorting noises during one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999. Nearly 25 minutes passed between the time the lethal drugs began flowing and McGuire was pronounced dead at 10:53 a.m. 
 
 Ohio prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith had no comment on how the execution proceeded but said a review will be conducted as usual. 
 
 Prison officials used intravenous doses of two drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone, to put McGuire to death for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of a pregnant newlywed, Joy Stewart. 
 
 The method was adopted after supplies of a previously used drug dried up because the manufacturer declared it off limits for capital punishment. 
 
 Executions with the former method were typically much shorter and did not cause the kind of sounds McGuire uttered. 
 
 The execution is certain to launch a new round of federal lawsuits over Ohio's injection procedure. The state has five more executions scheduled this year, with the next one to come on Feb. 19. 
 
 What was particularly unusual Thursday was the five minutes or so that McGuire lay motionless on the gurney after the drugs began flowing, followed by a sudden snort and then more than 10 minutes of irregular breathing and gasping. Normally, movement comes at the beginning and is followed by inactivity. 
 
 "Oh, my God," his daughter, Amber McGuire, said as she observed her father's final moments. 
 
 In pressing for the execution to go ahead, Assistant Ohio Attorney General Thomas Madden had argued that while the U.S. Constitution bans cruel and unusual punishment, "you're not entitled to a pain-free execution." 
 
 U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost sided with the state. But at the request of McGuire's lawyers, he ordered officials to photograph and preserve the drug vials and packaging and the syringes. 
 
 A few minutes before McGuire was put to death, Ohio prison director Gary Mohr said he believed the state's planning would produce "a humane, dignified execution" consistent with the law. 
 
 Strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber, McGuire thanked Stewart's family for their "kind words" in a letter he apparently received from them. 
 
 "I'm going to heaven. I'll see you there when you come," he said. 
 
 Bohnert, McGuire's public defender, said the court's concerns over the method had been confirmed. 
 
 Stewart's slaying went unsolved for 10 months until McGuire, jailed on an unrelated assault and hoping to improve his legal situation, told investigators he had information about the death. His attempts to pin the crime on his brother-in-law quickly unraveled, and he was accused of the killing. 
 
 More than a decade later, DNA evidence confirmed McGuire's guilt, and he acknowledged his responsibility in a letter to Gov. John Kasich last month. 
 
 The death row inmate's lawyers argued McGuire was mentally, physically and sexually abused as a child and had impaired brain function that made him prone to act impulsively. 
 
 "We have forgiven him, but that does not negate the need for him to pay for his actions," Stewart's family said in a statement after the execution. 
 
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 Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus
– Dennis McGuire was put to death today with a two-drug combination previously untested in the US, and at more than 15 minutes, it was one of the longest executions in Ohio since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999. McGuire, whose lawyers had attempted to delay his execution by arguing that he would likely feel "terror" following the lethal injection, appeared to gasp a few times as he died, making several loud snorting or snoring sounds, the AP reports. Before his execution, he told his sobbing adult children, "I'm going to heaven, I'll see you there when you come." McGuire had sought a reprieve by offering to become an organ donor, but was rejected because he couldn't identify a family member who would receive his organs, according to documents obtained by the AP. McGuire, who raped and murdered a pregnant woman in 1989, was executed with the untested combination of the sedative midozolam and the painkiller hydropmorphone because of a shortage of the execution drug pentobarbital, NBC reports. His lawyers had contended "that he will suffocate to death in agony and terror. The state disagrees," the director of UC Berkeley's Death Penalty Clinic told CNN before the execution. (One Wyoming state senator, concerned about the shortage of execution drugs, is trying to bring back firing squads as an alternative.)