Yesterday in Arizona, convicted double-murderer Joseph Wood “gasped and snorted” throughout an execution that lasted nearly two hours. Leading up to the lethal injection, Wood’s attorney had attempted to have it stayed because prison officials would not reveal where they acquired the combination of drugs used. Ultimately, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling that would have stopped the execution. Many drug companies do not want the association with capital punishment, and prisons are, in turn, increasingly hesitant to reveal their drug suppliers.
Arizona had never before used the two-drug cocktail, but the same drugs were used in criticized, prolonged executions in two other states. Wood’s public defender told NBC, “”The state of Arizona today conducted a failed experiment. It was horrible to watch.” In 1989 Woods murdered both his girlfriend and her father. In interviews with several news outlets, members of the victims’ family said that the public attention should be on Wood’s crimes, not the execution …
