PHOENIX, (Reuters) – An Arizona inmate took almost two hours to die by lethal injection yesterday and his lawyers said he “gasped and snorted” before succumbing in the latest botched execution to raise questions about the death penalty in the United States.
The execution of convicted double murderer Joseph Wood began at 1:52 p.m. local time at a state prison complex, and the 55-year-old was pronounced dead just shy of two hours later at 3:49 p.m., the Arizona attorney general’s office said.
During that time, his lawyers filed an unsuccessful emergency appeal in federal courts that sought to have the execution halted and their client given life-saving medical treatment.
The appeal said the procedure violated his constitutional right to be executed without suffering cruel and unusual punishment.
“He gasped and struggled to breath for about an hour and 40 minutes,” said one of Wood’s attorneys, Dale Baich.
“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.”
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer expressed concern over how long the lethal injection procedure took and ordered the state’s Department of Corrections to conduct a full review, but said justice had been done and that the execution was lawful.
“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.
