Joseph Wood Execution Botched; Prisoner Prayed for Forgiveness of Executioners Before 'Suffering' for 2 Hours
Arizona prisoner Joseph Rudolf Wood was put to death yesterday, but the execution did not go as planned, and Wood took two hours to die. It was classified as a botched execution that follows in the same pattern as that of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett, who took 45 minutes to die after receiving his injection of unknown drugs.
Wood's lawyers had originally won a stay of execution, asking for the manufacturers of the drugs used in his execution to be revealed, as well as the drugs themselves. However, an appeals court overturned that stay, and Wood's execution went on as regularly scheduled. During the execution, Wood did not die quickly, and his lawyers filed an emergency motion to abort the execution given that he was still alive more than an hour after the lethal injection.
"He has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour," the lawyers wrote in their emergency motion. "He is still alive."
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The motion was denied by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Wood passed away. He reportedly suffered for 117 minutes, according to one reporter who watched the event.
It was "very disturbing to watch … like a fish on shore gulping for air. At a certain point, you wondered whether he was ever going to die," Troy Haden of Fox 10 News reported.
"I counted about 640 times he gasped," Arizona Republic reporter Michael Kiefer noted. "That petered out by 3:33. The death was called at 3:49. … I just know it was not efficient. It took a long time."
Wood was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Debra Dietz and her father, Eugene Dietz, in 1989. The victims' family felt that Wood did not suffer at all and had no sympathy for Wood.
"Everybody here said it was excruciating," Jeanne Brown, Debra Dietz's sister, said. "You don't know what excruciating is. Seeing your dad lying there in a pool of blood, seeing your sister lying there in a pool of blood, that's excruciating."
"What I've seen today, you guys are blowing this all out of proportion about these drugs," Richard Brown, Jeanne's husband, added. "Why didn't we give him a bullet? Why didn't we give him some Drano? These people that are on death row, they deserve to suffer a little bit."
Arizona governor Jan Brewer has ordered the Department of Corrections to review what happened in Wood's death but noted that he did not suffer and "died in a lawful manner."
"This one is really on Brewer's shoulders," Senator Ed Ableser told AZCentral. "She can sign an executive order, put a stay on executions and let the Legislature find a better way to deal with violent criminals who deserve the maximum penalty, but one that is not cruel and unusual."
Wood's lawyers have asked for an outside investigation into what went wrong during the execution and the process of execution itself. There has been growing opposition to the death penalty, given the recent botched executions of inmates who reportedly suffered greatly before finally passing away.
Wood thanked his attorneys and spoke of how he had found Christ before saying, "May God forgive all of you," as the execution began.
