Condemned Ohio killer tried unsuccessfully to delay execution with organ donation

1/15/2014

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Documents show a condemned Ohio killer facing a never-tried lethal injection method attempted unsuccessfully to delay his execution by requesting he become an organ donor.

An attorney for inmate Dennis McGuire asked Gov. John Kasich for a reprieve last month similar to one provided in November to a death row prisoner who wants to donate a kidney and his heart.

Kasich rejected the request this month because McGuire couldn’t identify a family member to receive the organs. That’s according to documents obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press through a public records request.

The 53-year-old McGuire is scheduled to die Thursday for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart in Preble County in western Ohio.

McGuire was moved to the state death house in southern Ohio on Wednesday.