An Arizona inmate gasped and snorted for 117 minutes during his execution before he croaked
Joseph Wood, 55, was executed Tuesday by the state of Arizona for the 1989 murder of his girlfriend Debra Dietz and her father. The state used a lethal drug cocktail of midazolam and hydromorphone. The only problem was that the bastard didn’t croak until 3:49 p.m., some 117 minutes after the lethal injection began. During that time, Wood gasped for air 660 times, according to a journalist from the Arizona Republic who witnessed the execution.
An hour after the start of the execution, Wood’s lawyers filed an emergency motion in a federal district court to halt the execution and their client’s ‘suffering.’ Alas, they were too late.
As can be expected, there was an immediate hue and cry about how poor old Joe, who roosted on death row for 25 years, suffered during his cruel execution. But Dietz's sister, Jeannie Brown told NBC News that "I don't believe he was suffering. Who really suffered was my dad and my sister when they were killed."
Gov. Jan Brewer, while expressing concern over how the execution went, told NBC that Wood didn't suffer "in stark comparison to the gruesome, vicious suffering that he inflicted on his two victims."
I don’t understand why some capital punishment states keep using a combination of lethal drugs when a single dose of pentobarbital, as used by Texas and Georgia, works just fine. I am sure Wood’s two hours of gasping and snorting will energize the 'hug-the-condemned' opponents of capital punishment. And it will create a wave of appeals over lethal drugs in future executions, including those in Texas and Georgia. The question is: With this coming on the heels of last April’s botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, will Wood’s execution lead to the end of lethal injections?
As an aside, I want to commend that Arizona Republic reporter for the way he managed to keep an exact count of the 660 gasps. I suppose though, that was as good a way as any to pass two hours of sitting around.
2 comments:
Maybe we should just go back to hanging the bastards.
Bob, there's nothing wrong with hanging the bastards, but Americans are way too squeamish to tolerate any executions other than those carried out by lethal injection, and that includes many people not opposed to capital punishment. Hanging may be constitutional, as is the gas chamber and firing squad, but it ain’t about to happen.
While Wood’s two-hour execution will no doubt energize the ‘hug-the-condemned’ crowd in their zeal to abolish capital punishment, it will also turn off those who do not oppose the death penalty, but still have misgivings about it. And that’s why I asked if Wood’s execution will lead to the end of lethal injections, and thereby end all executions.
Post a Comment