Arizona execution takes two hours

PHOENIX -- A condemned Arizona inmate gasped for more than an hour and a half during his execution Wednesday before he died in an episode that is likely to add to the scrutiny surrounding the death penalty in the U.S.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne's office said Joseph Rudolph Wood was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m., one hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.

Wood's lawyers had filed emergency appeals with federal and state courts while the execution was underway, demanding that it be stopped. The appeal said Wood was "gasping and snorting for more than an hour."

Gov. Jan Brewer said later that she is ordering a full review of the state's execution process, saying she's concerned by how long it took for the administered drug protocol to kill Wood.

An Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution saw Wood start gasping shortly after a sedative and a pain killer were injected into his veins. He gasped more than 600 times over the next hour and 40 minutes. The 55-year-old then finally stopped breathing and was pronounced dead 12 minutes later.

"Throughout this execution, I conferred and collaborated with our IV team members and was assured unequivocally that the inmate was comatose and never in pain or distress," said state Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan.

Defense lawyer Dale Baich called it a botched execution that should have taken 10 minutes.

"Arizona appears to have joined several other states who have been responsible for an entirely preventable horror -- a bungled execution," Baich said. "The public should hold its officials responsible and demand to make this process more transparent."

Family members of Wood's victims said they had no problems with the way the execution was carried out.

"This man conducted a horrific murder and you guys are going, 'Let's worry about the drugs,'" said Richard Brown, the brother-in-law of Debbie Dietz, who was 29 when she was killed in 1989. "Why didn't they give him a bullet? Why didn't we give him Drano?"

The case has highlighted scrutiny surrounding lethal injections after two previous contentious executions. An Ohio inmate executed in January snorted and gasped during the 26 minutes it took him to die. In Oklahoma, an inmate died of a heart attack in April, minutes after prison officials halted his execution because the drugs weren't being administered properly.

Arizona uses the same drugs -- the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone -- that were used in the Ohio execution. A different drug combination was used in the Oklahoma case.

States have refused to reveal details such as which pharmacies are supplying lethal injection drugs and who is administering them, because of concerns over harassment.

Wood filed several appeals that were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court, including one that said his First Amendment rights were violated when the state refused to reveal such details.

A Section on 07/24/2014

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