Ohio ACLU seeks Christopher Newton execution records:  Alan Johnson has this article in the Columbus Dispatch, entitled "ACLU seeks execution records; inmate suffocated, doctor says."  AP has this additional coverage.

Dispatch excerpt:
Convicted killer Christopher J. Newton might have been "suffocated alive" during his drawn-out execution last week, a death-penalty critic said yesterday.

"The drugs were clearly not working.… It would be like putting a plastic bag over someone's head," Dr. Jonathan Groner said in supporting the American Civil Liberties Union's demand for records pertaining to Newton's May 24 execution.

The ACLU asked Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, to turn over the Death House log from Newton's execution, a list of personnel who witnessed and participated, training records for the execution team, and all "procedures and protocols" for lethal injection.

Jeffrey M. Gamso, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, said with two "botched executions" in the past year, the lethal-injection process is not working.

"Ohio doesn't have a clue," Gamso said at a news conference at the Hyatt on Capitol Square. "We clearly don't know what we're doing."

Newton, 37, was executed for the beating death of Jason Brewer, his former cellmate.

Newton's execution took one hour and 53 minutes. According to the prison log obtained by The Dispatch, 73 minutes were consumed by paramedics searching for veins to attach IV lines for the three-drug cocktail.

The log also shows that once the IVs were connected, the drug infusion took 14 minutes, from 11:37 to 11:51 a.m. During that time, media witnesses observed Newton's chest heaving and his hands and forehead turning blue, likely from lack of oxygen.

Groner, trauma medical director at Children's Hospital and associate professor of surgery at Ohio State University Medical Center, said that indicates Newton's body was deprived of oxygen before his heart stopped beating.

"He basically suffocated alive," Groner said.

Mike Randle, assistant prisons director, said the records request is under review by state lawyers.

He strenuously disagreed with the ACLU's description of Newton's execution as botched.

"The execution did follow protocol," Randle said. "It went along in accordance with our process to ensure it was done in a humane manner."

Randle said problems with Joseph Clark's execution in May 2006, when a vein collapsed during the lethal-injection process and paramedics struggled for an hour to re-establish the IV lines, prompted "refinements" used in Newton's case.

Chief among the changes: removing time constraints so the execution team could take as long as necessary to do its job, Randle explained.

"It worked the way we hoped it would in this particular case."

Sister Alice Gerdeman, head of Ohioans to Stop Executions, said it remains a "completely broken system."

"Ohio is, unfortunately, turning a blind eye to … these real problems with the way it carries out these executions."