Arizona Inmate's Lawyers Say He's Alive an Hour After Execution Began

[sufrommich]

Lawyers for Arizona death-row prisoner Joseph Wood said in court papers Wednesday that an hour after his execution began he was still alive — and they asked the court to stop the proceeding. "He has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour," lawyers wrote in a petition to the Arizona federal court. Wood — who was condemned to death for fatally shooting his girlfriend and her father in 1989 — challenged the execution on the grounds that the state was violating the First Amendment by keeping the source of the lethal-injection drugs secret. An appeals panel agreed with him, but the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the stay of execution.

Wood, 55, was scheduled to be killed with a combination of midazolam and hydromorphone, the same drugs used in an Ohio execution in which the inmate seemed to struggle for air and took 25 minutes to die. His execution date had been put on hold several times as the case wound its way through last-minute appeals. One of those decisions was notable for a dissent in which the chief judge of a federal appeals court said the guillotine would be better than lethal injection for executions.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/arizona-inmates-lawyers-say-hes-alive-hour-after-execution-began-n163086


We are more humane when we put dogs down.


Edited to add AP says he's now dead after 2 hours.



The Associated Press ?@AP 2m

BREAKING: Arizona attorney general says death row inmate is dead, nearly 2 hours after execution started.

[Union Scribe]

1. I read on Twitter just now

that they have pronounced him dead. Almost two hours. How the fuck could they stand around watching that, letting that happen??

[sufrommich]

5. I'm against the DP but I realize it exists whether

I agree or not.My question is why can't they find a painless way to kill someone if they insist on killing them?

[Union Scribe]

9. Yeah really.

What they're doing now is the worst of both worlds. Two hours. Medieval torturers would be impressed.

[csziggy]

27. When animals are euthanized

They first sedate them so they are unconscious, then the drug that stops their heart and depresses their breathing is administered.

I guess drug companies that do not support the death penalty are blocking the use of sedatives to make the process painless for condemned humans. And the vindictive people that keep the death penalty in effect would object to the condemned having a painless death.

The appeals court judge is right - the guillotine would be more humane than any of the methods we use in this country.

The death penalty is not an effective deterrent. It is expensive and is unpleasant and unhealthy for our society. But what do we expect for a country that will not ensure health care and nutrition for our citizens and that has a large number of people that want to turn away child refugees from our borders?

[StevieM]

35. I'm also against the death penalty. As for your question, I am guessing that

the "best" way to kill some one, if they insist on doing it, is the firing squad.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. This is horrifying; you are so right.

We have lost our collective souls when we allow such barbarity.

[RKP5637]

7. Hi, can you answer my post #6. I just don't get it. n/t

[randys1]

3. New rule, if you are in favor of killing people, then you have to do the killing

We will have a pool or lottery, and if you want the prisoner killed your name must be entered into the pool.

If your name is chosen you must pull the switch and stand next to the person while dying.

Good chance your name wont be chosen, but if it is, you have to do this.





Sadly, some teaparty types will consider this like winning the lottery...

[marble falls]

23. Absolutely.

[blueamy66]

33. But what if it was your infant child or parent?

If someone tortured and murdered one of my loved ones....I don't know....I might do it....

What is the alternative? Life in prison?

I just don't know.....

[Ed Suspicious]

39. If it were my family, I might want the criminal to be vengefully tortured, which is precisely why

that decision doesn't belong in the family of the victims, rather it belongs in the dispassionate hands of the criminal justice system.

[blueamy66]

64. Good answer.

Still tough to take though.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

72. Exactly! Same as why I want a president who won't always do what I might have wanted him to do

in my first emotional reaction to any event. That's the problem with Teabaggers--they can't get past their lizard brain reactions.

[randys1]

44. Never, revenge doesnt work, isnt healthy and isnt right...

[Hippo_Tron]

50. We don't make decisions about justice based on the grief of murder victims' families

I'm 100% against the death penalty. And if someone murdered any member of my family, odds are I would want to beat that person to death with a crowbar. Which is why any sane rational justice system would consider my opinion in the matter irrelevant and leave decisions about punishment to people who are actually able to think rationally. Letting me beat the murderer to death with a crowbar is not in the best interests of society. Neither is any form of execution, period.

[Hoppy]

37. When Gary Gilmore was to be executed, there was a list of volunteers.

Hell, what better way to spend a morning? Jethro, they gives you coffee and cake before they drives you to where you shoot the summabitch. Then you get your target practice on a real live target... and get this, they gives you the ammo free. FREE, buddy.

[randys1]

45. We got us some sick mofos in this here country, eh

[LWolf]

71. I'd rather that people not kill people.

I've often thought your rule ought to be applied to meat eaters, though. Kill your own. It would reduce the consumption of meat, increase home-raised meat, and hopefully decrease the factory production of inhumanely raised meat.

And yes, I'm a meat eater, although I don't eat it much or daily, and have, although not always, killed my own.

[MohRokTah]

4. The Guillotine is more humane. eom

[MoonRiver]

15. And firing squads.

OMG, this country is so demented!

[RKP5637]

6. What I don't get is people are anesthetized for operations. Why in the world is this a brutal

event with these drugs they use, why can't a preliminary anesthesia be used, or something like that. It's just another of my many WTF's each day. We've had to have a couple of our pets put down because of incurable diseases and age. It was a peaceful event. So often this process for humans sounds like pure torture. Damn, it seems we are so fucked up!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. Many people, I believe, oppose anesthesia for executions, because they want those people to suffer.

The death penalty is seen as punishment.

Surgery is not punishment, but rather a way to fix something wrong.

That's probably the difference.

I hope that helps.

[RKP5637]

22. Yes, it does, thanks! n/t

[blackspade]

48. As if being deprived of life isn't punishment enough.

Or that you have to sit in a concrete box, alone, knowing that you have a set lifespan based on the whim of others, until you are led off to die by some possibly incompetent thug that drew the short straw that day....

[blueamy66]

65. I have been adamantly pro death penalty...

Your post makes me think....

[blackspade]

68. And that is all I ask of people.

Even if you don't change your mind I would hope that you would not support this kind of execution.
It stains us as a society.

[blueamy66]

69. No, I would never support this type of execution.

I've always thought of it as a punishment that fits the crime.

[blackspade]

70. Nice to hear.

[sufrommich]

13. Good question.nt

[alsame]

16. People die when

they OD on heroin! Even a deliberate OD would be more humane than this.

I am 100% against the death penalty, but I have little hope that it will be abolished in my lifetime.

[babydollhead]

67. yes

for 10 dollars they could just give them fentanyl laced heroin, like so many have OD'd on.

[joshcryer]

20. Basically the kill industry is becoming a pariah.

In the Oklahoma botched murder they didn't have a competent person administering the IV. And once the execution starts and things aren't going well you don't stop it and send someone in there to adjust the IV, make sure everything is going well, etc. There's a viewing going on.

These things could be done very easily and effectively using proven euthanasia techniques. But that requires human interaction with the murder victim. If you do it without that interaction (that a vet would have with your pet), it's going to be messy.

[Gravitycollapse]

21. The drugs are supposed to anesthetize the victim.

The former triple drug cocktail put the patient to sleep, paralyzed him and then stopped his heart, in that order.

The new drug cocktails are supposed to mimic this but often fail because they were not developed under the guidance of experienced medical staff.

[RKP5637]

25. Thanks! n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Doctors and other health professionals don't want to be part of an execution

so finding someone qualified to anaesthetize someone without mistakes is not easy. It won't help that a prisoner about to be executed knows what's going on, and so may well not be calm.

[RKP5637]

26. Very good point! n/t

[riderinthestorm]

41. The former cocktail of drugs can't be used anymore since manufacturers refuse to provide it

The new drug mix is a secret.

There's a big skirmish going on legally to discover whose providing these drugs and how they were "tested" (cough) to do the job.

Clearly they aren't working. Whose drugs are these??

[MannyGoldstein]

8. A competent SCOTUS would put an end to this horror

It's cruel and unusual, for sure.

Unfortunately...

[MoonRiver]

17. How could he change things?

[sufrommich]

19. "competent" being the issue here.nt

[Trillo]

11. Looks like the PTB have learned how to use drugs to kill slowly,

instead of quickly and with mercy.

[gratuitous]

12. So what's the big schmeal?

I have been reliably informed here recently that we should celebrate the wanton infliction of pain on those who deserve it (a shifty, moving target, the logic of which escapes the likes of me). If Mr. Wood was tortured to death over the span of 90 minutes or so, we should actually be cheering, and pinning medals on the chests of all involved. The opinions of those who feel differently don't really count, for any of a number of disqualifying reasons.

[joshcryer]

14. That whole constitution thing.

[gratuitous]

18. That quaint old document?

I am also reliably informed that in this age of terror, terror everywhere we just can't afford to observe every last jot and tittle of some old document and its superannuated language. Too much danger or something. Also some obscure point about omelettes and eggs, but I keep getting snagged on another old idea that human beings aren't eggs.

It's all very confusing, but the folks who have been scolding me sound very sure of themselves.

[WillyT]

28. Cruel And Unusual Punishment.

[Aerows]

29. As someone else mentioned

people OD on heroin all the time. What the hell is wrong with using a massive dose of that? Good grief there are any number of things that can kill a person, why let them linger for 2 hours?

[NaturalHigh]

57. Thank you! I've been saying that for years.

[Aerows]

58. If you have to kill them

load them up and send them on their way. I don't understand why this is such a difficult problem. Unless, of course, you want a heap of suffering all the way around.

[devils chaplain]

30. Sick. n/t

[defacto7]

31. Completely uncivilized.

We have devolved to this?

Yes, collectively we have returned to the days of the Roman Colosseum only with more and varied tools.

All planned or anger centered killing of humans is murder. Illegal animal poaching is also murder.

The death cults are alive and well practiced by the human species.

[blueamy66]

32. Agree with the death penalty in some cases....

but this is so freaking inhumane...it's unbelievable....

What has happened to us?

[markpkessinger]

36. If you agree with the death penalty "in some cases" . . .

. . . then you support the sacrifice of some unknown number of innocents in order to satiate a collective desire for vengeance.

Here's the problem with the argument of those who say they support the death penalty in cases where there is absolute certainty of guilt and the crime is particularly "deserving." First, there is no way to limit the application of the death penalty to such cases. Our legal system does not provide for varying degrees of certainty over a convict's guilt. One is either guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt" or one is not. If there is doubt sufficient to warrant a different penalty, then there is reasonable doubt as to that defendant's guilt in the first place, and his or her conviction should be set aside.

Second, the question of which crimes rise to a level of heinousness deserving of the death penalty is inherently a subjective one, and this fact, too, would result in the death penalty being unevently -- and hence unjustly. Sorry, but as an ethical matter, there really is no middle ground of "in some case" available. If you support it in any case, you support its attendant horrors in other cases.

[herding cats]

34. It should never have been allowed to take place in the first place.

For those who aren't current on the preceding events of this execution.

Court lifts stay in lethal injection challenge (UPDATED)

(UPDATED July 23, 2014: This morning the Court denied another request by Wood to stay his execution. Wood had asked the Court to review a decision by the Ninth Circuit which affirmed the district court’s denial of the motion that he had filed pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6); the Court also denied that petition for certiorari.)

Last week a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted a request by an Arizona death-row inmate, Joseph Wood, to postpone his execution (scheduled for tomorrow) until he receives information regarding the state’s plans to execute him by lethal injection. The court of appeals stayed the execution until Arizona provided Wood with “the name and provenance of the drugs to be used” and the “qualifications of the medical personnel” who would carry out the execution. Yesterday the en banc Ninth Circuit declined to step in, instead leaving the panel’s stay order in effect. That denial drew a sharp dissent from (among others) Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who wrote that he had “little doubt that the Supreme Court will thwart this latest attempt to interfere with the State of Arizona’s efforts to carry out its lawful sentence and bring Wood to justice.”

Kozinski’s words proved prophetic, as this evening the Supreme Court granted the state’s request to vacate the temporary stay ordered by the Ninth Circuit. The Court also denied Wood’s request for a stay of execution, along with his petition for certiorari. Although the requests originally went to Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Justice responsible for (among other things) stay requests from the geographic area of the Ninth Circuit, which includes Arizona, Justice Kennedy – as the Justices often do – referred the requests to the whole Court, and there were no dissents or separate statements from any of the Justices regarding the Court’s actions tonight. The basis for the Court’s ruling was that the district court had not abused its discretion in denying a stay, so conceivably the result would have been different if Wood had won in both lower courts. But the dearth of dissents suggests not.

http://www.scotusblog.com/2014/07/court-lifts-stay-in-lethal-injection-challenge/

[freshwest]

38. IDK about these drugs. People are put under anesthesia and almost never feel a thing when they wake.

If they are put too far under, they don't wake and that's it, and nearly happened to me once after an all day surgery. I don't remember a thing until I woke up.

Mind you, I'm not a doctor! Why are they not using drugs that act as anesthesia?

I'm not talking about the morality of the DP one way or the other. We are talking about a standardized procedure, alleged to be painless and used for years.

Now we have these reports coming out, and some saying to go back to hanging, firing squads or even using the guillotine.

What the hell is going on with this rampart 'medical' incompetence?

That's all I'm asking. This is even more grosteque than the 'standardizing' of executions were to begin with.

I have got German friends who find the death penalty a grave offense to civlization, after all, the Nazis 'standardized' the process of killing and did it with relative efficiency, although preventing suffering was not part of their equation.

This just shows how sick humanity is and if I believed in that sort of thing, I'd guess we are being told something...

[riderinthestorm]

42. Those manufacturers won't provide the drugs to do that. They now recognize its toxic

to be labelled as the "death penalty drug provider".

The new drug mix is a secret. There's a big legal skirmish going on to get the company name revealed and how they "tested" this drug mix to ensure it was efficacious....

(since its clearly not)

[Rex]

40. Cruel and unusual punishment, well actually grusome death.

I don't really talk much about what I think toward the death penalty. A person takes a like and loses their life, they forfeit the right to live anymore.

Why is it we don't make an airlock type system? We can get 13 people together to draw straws to see who opens the airlock door.

Nope, just no way to make it sound civilized.

OTOH - leave it to the SCOTUS to go with torture. No doubt Scalia was for it.

[riderinthestorm]

43. Horrific. The DP must end. This is the very definition of cruel and unusual punishment nt

[jmowreader]

46. Nitrogen asphyxiation: the ONLY way to do it

If you breathe pure nitrogen for long enough you WILL die. And you'll never know what hit you - which is why nitrogen is considered the most dangerous of all industrial gases. It's painless, it's cheap to set up (a nitrogen cylinder, an oxygen cylinder, a mixing valve, some tubing, something to strap the prisoner to so he doesn't rip the mask off, and a mask - a firefighter's SCBA would be terrific but the little O2 masks they use on planes would be sufficient - to put on the prisoner's face), it's quick, there's no way for the prison staff to fuck this up, and there's no question about being able to get the necessary chemicals because nitrogen is sold at any welding store and they don't ask what you want it for.

[joshcryer]

49. BBC Horizons - The Science of Killing Human Beings

[blackspade]

47. Criminal negligence

and a violation of this guy's constitutional rights.

[Evergreen Emerald]

51. The victim's family said he was snoring and peaceful NOT gasping for air

I wonder about the politics of the whole thing. I agree two hours is too long. But, I am starting to question the political motives of the attorneys for the inmate and if they exaggerated the suffering.

[kcr]

59. I certainly don't blame the victim's families for feeling the way they do

But that's not exactly an unbiased source.

[Evergreen Emerald]

60. No, but neither is his attorney

I cannot blame the victims' families either. It is sad. Nothing will bring them back, or stop them from the pain of knowing that their loved ones suffered.

Try as I might, I have no sympathy for the murder. I understand everyone's outrage. And, I know somewhere in the back of my mind that I should be outraged. But, my heart just keeps thinking of the victims. It is not about vengeance. It is not about political beliefs. I feel deeply for the pain and suffering that the victims and their families endured at his hands.

[kcr]

61. It's not about having sympathy

That completely misses the point. And i'd take the lawyer over the family because he isn't emotionally invested to the extent they are.

[Evergreen Emerald]

62. Not true

Attorneys get emotionally invested in their cases and have political agendas that may taint the way they present an issue.

And, I am not missing any points.

[kcr]

63. I didn't say they didn't get invested

But it isn't the same as actually losing a loved one. Not even close. Sorry.

[oldandhappy]

52. unbelievably cruel

I wonder if prisoners have the right to request a firing squad. Much quicker, cleaner, more humane.

[Takket]

53. He was just asleep

So says the department of corrections:

"Arizona Corrections Department says executed man was "snoring" and "did not grimace" or otherwise move during execution. "

Hmmm... yeah... we'll see.

[Takket]

54. the guillotine idea

if we are going to execute people, why don't we just give them a MASSIVE dose of anesthesia, which can put any to sleep, then just guillotine them. I mean, this might sound appalling to people, but isn't it a heck of a lot more effective then the drug cocktails they use now? guy is sound asleep, head cut off (which we know isn't going to leave you convulsing for 2 hours!).... and he's dead.

[Trillo]

55. I think the persistent idea or pattern is that it's supposed to be torture,

while it's not supposed to be torture via the constitution. The electric chair was also said to take a long time to kill completely.

The electric chair has been criticized because of several instances in which the subjects were killed only after being subjected to multiple electric shocks. This led to a call for ending of the practice because many see it as cruel and unusual punishment.[21] Trying to address such concerns, Nebraska introduced a new electrocution protocol in 2004, which called for administration of a 15-second-long application of 2,450 volts of electricity; after a 15-minute wait, an official then checks for signs of life. New concerns raised regarding the 2004 protocol resulted, in April 2007, in the ushering in of the current Nebraska protocol, calling for a 20-second-long application of 2,450 volts of electricity. (Prior to the 2004 protocol change, an initial eight-second application of 2,450 volts was administered, followed by a one-second pause, then a 22-second application at 480 volts. After a 20-second break, the cycle was repeated three more times.)

In 1946, the electric chair failed to kill Willie Francis, who reportedly shrieked "take it off! Let me breathe!" after the current was applied. It turned out that the portable electric chair had been improperly set up by an intoxicated trustee. A case was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court (Francis v. Resweber),[22] with lawyers for the condemned arguing that although Francis did not die, he had, in fact, been executed. The argument was rejected on the basis that re-execution did not violate the double jeopardy clause of the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution, and Francis was returned to the electric chair and successfully executed in 1947.

Recorded incidents of botched electrocutions were prevalent after the national moratorium ended January 17, 1977; two in Alabama, three in Florida, one in Georgia, one in Indiana and three in Virginia. All five states now have lethal injection as the default method if a choice is not made.

So too with the gas chamber:

... By the 1980s, reports of suffering during gas chamber executions had led to controversy over the use of this method.

At the September 2, 1983, execution of Jimmy Lee Gray in Mississippi, officials cleared the viewing room after eight minutes while Gray was still alive and gasping for air. The decision to clear the room while he was still alive was criticized by his attorney. David Bruck, an attorney specializing in death penalty cases, said, "Jimmy Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while reporters counted his moans."[7]

During the April 6, 1992, execution of Donald Harding in Arizona, it took 11 minutes for death to occur. The prison warden stated that he would quit if required to conduct another gas chamber execution.[8] Following Harding's execution, Arizona voted that all persons condemned after November 1992 would be executed by lethal injection.[6]

Following the execution of Robert Alton Harris, a federal court declared that "execution by lethal gas under the California protocol is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual."[9] By the late 20th century, most states had switched to methods considered to be more humane, such as lethal injection. California's gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison was converted to an execution chamber for lethal injection.

It would be simpler if we could decide not to kill people, but then we end up with stories like this sadist warden.

[tularetom]

56. I dunno

I read something like this and I'm horrified that we're so fucking medieval.

Then I read about the asshole who researched ways to bake his kid alive in a sealed car and I'd be willing to leave him tied up in a glass box in Death Valley in July.

I'm not unalterably opposed to the death penalty, I am concerned that it seems to be somewhat overwhelmingly applied to the poor and minorities, and that we occasionally execute an innocent person. Maybe a lot of us would feel better if they fried a rich guy once in a while.

[REP]

73. Versed and Dilaudid? Terrible combo to kill someone with

Versed is a short-acting benzo that induces temporary amnesia but doesn't alleviate pain; it just makes you forget it. It's also used to help induce general anesthesia ... if you're one of the lucky ones who's susceptible to it (I personally have a rare reaction to it called the Paradoxical Reaction; it wakes me up and keeps me up. In others this reaction can be one of violence, agitation and/or anxiety.).

Dilaudid (hydromorphone) is an analgesic; overdose can cause respiratory failure.