COLUMBUS, Ohio — An inmate scheduled to die next week for raping and strangling a 16-year-old girl has failed to present enough evidence of an allergy to anesthesia that could affect the execution, a federal judge ruled yesterday.
Condemned killer Darryl Durr waited too long to raise the issue of an allergy and then relied mainly on speculation to ask for time to investigate, said US District Judge Gregory Frost.
Durr’s attorneys immediately appealed the judge’s ruling.
In an unusual legal maneuver, Durr is arguing that no one knows how his body will react if state officials are allowed next week to inject him with the one lethal drug they now use. But the state said there is no proof that an allergic reaction would occur before Durr was already deeply unconscious from the drug.
The worst type of allergic reaction to anesthesia results in death from low blood pressure and impaired breathing, the state added.
