Joseph Wood, a convicted double murderer, died nearly two hours after lethal injection was administered Wednesday, in the Arizona state prison. This is the third botched execution this year in the United States.
Wood, 55, was given a combination of midazolam and hydromorphone drugs at 1:52 p.m. and was declared dead at 3:49 p.m. He gasped and snorted the entire time. His lawyers filed an emergency appeal with federal and state courts during the execution requesting to halt to it and provide him with medical treatment. The lawyers stated that the execution violated Wood's Eighth Amendment right to be executed in the absence of cruel and unusual punishment.
"He gasped and struggled to breathe for about an hour and 40 minutes," said Dale Baich, one of Wood's attorneys, reports Reuters. "Arizona appears to have joined several other states who have been responsible for an entirely preventable horror: a bungled execution. The public should hold its officials responsible."
The incident comes within two months of the Oklahoma botched execution where inmate Clayton Locket suffered a massive heart attack after 45 minutes of moaning and writhing. Wood's bungled execution raises more questions over the ambiguity of the lethal drugs used by the states.
Senior authorities in Arizona tried to damage control by assuring that Wood was not in pain during the execution. "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, reports the Associated Press.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer ordered the state's Department of Corrections for a full review. However, he echoed similar sentiments to corrections department and said that the execution was lawful and that justice was served. "One thing is certain, however, inmate Wood died in a lawful manner and by eyewitness and medical accounts he did not suffer," the Republican Governor said in a statement. "This is in stark comparison to the gruesome, vicious suffering that he inflicted on his two victims, and the lifetime of suffering he has caused their family."
Wood had filed a motion against Arizona last month over the privacy of sources of the lethal drugs. He also argued that his First Amendment rights were violated. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a stay on his execution Saturday saying that Wood might suffer "irreparable harm" if the state did not disclose information about the drugs and the qualifications of the medical staff performing the execution.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted Arizona to carry out the execution of Wood, who was convicted of 1989 killing of his 29-year-old ex-girlfriend and her 55-year-old father Gene.
In January, Ohio death row inmate Dennis McGuire was given a similar combination of drugs that Wood received. Expert anesthetists cautioned Ohio about the drugs, but the authorities did not pay any heed and administered those doses to McGuire who took 26 minutes to die.
Oklahoma inmate Lockett was too given midazolam as a part of three drug combo in April.
