Arizona execution takes 2 hours
It took the state of Arizona nearly two hours to complete the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood, enough time for his lawyers to file a petition for a stay of execution even though the lethal drugs had already been administered.
AZ Central reports the execution began at 1:54 p.m. and was not officially pronounced over until 3:49 p.m. In excruciating detail, AZ Central lays out what happened in front of the roughly 20 witnesses to the execution.
After saying his last words, which did not contain an apology, only a mention of having found Jesus, the drugs, midazolam and hydromorphone, began to flow. The same drugs were used in previous executions in Florida and Ohio, which took longer than the typical 10 minutes. The Ohio case took more than 20 minutes.
While the execution seemed to be off to a normal start, at 2:05, Wood opened his mouth in a manner reminiscent of "a fish on land" gasping for air, according to AZ Central.
Wood made at least 640 such gasps according to AZ Central, all the while the prison doctor kept entering the execution chamber to announce that Wood was still sedated. The AZ Central reporter said that every time he made the announcement over the intercom, he could hear sucking and snorting sounds coming from Wood.
Wood was sentenced to death for the 1989 double murder of his ex-girlfriend Debra Dietz and her father Eugene in the city of Tucson.
Fox News reports that the Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has ordered a review of the state's capital punishment program. But she also doubled down on the practice by saying, "One thing is certain, however. Wood died in a lawful manner and by eyewitness and medical accounts he did not suffer. 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."
