Daughter Suing Over Dad's Slow Execution

An Ohio inmate put to death for murder was tortured by his unusually slow execution, the man's daughter said today as she announced plans to file a lawsuit over her father's death. Dennis McGuire's daughter, Amber, referred to the "agony and terror" of watching her father as he appeared to gasp in his final moments yesterday—using the same words the condemned man's attorneys used in trying to stop his execution using a previously untried method of lethal injection.

"It was the most awful moment in my life to witness my dad's execution," she said in a statement ahead of the news conference. "I can't think of any other way to describe it than torture." The execution violated Dennis McGuire's constitutional right not to be treated or punished in a cruel or unusual way, said defense attorney Jon Paul Rion, representing McGuire's adult children. It's almost certain lawyers will use McGuire's execution to challenge Ohio's plans to put a condemned Cleveland-area killer to death in March. (More Dennis McGuire stories.)