Arizona inmate dies belatedly in apparently botched execution

[Omaha Steve]

Source: LA Times

By MATT PEARCE AND MAYA SRIKRISHNAN

Officials said an Arizona inmate gasped and snorted for more than an hour until dying in an apparently botched execution Wednesday that is sure to reinvigorate the national debate over lethal injection in the United States.

The death of Joseph Rudolph Wood III was confirmed by the Arizona attorney general about two hours after the procedure began.

Wood had apparently stayed alive so long that his attorneys filed for an emergency stay after the lethal injection initially failed to kill him, according to a legal filing.

"The Arizona Department of Corrections began the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood III at 1:52 p.m.," said the legal filing in federal court from public defender Jon M. Sands. "At 1:57 p.m ADC reported that Mr. Wood was sedated, but at 2:02 he began to breathe. At 2:03 his mouth moved. Mr. Wood has continued to breathe since that time. He has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour. At 3:02 p.m. At that time, staff rechecked for sedation. He is still alive."

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-arizona-execution-20140723-story.html

[Contrary1]

1. "On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a separate plea by Wood to delay his execution

until the state turned over detailed information on the drugs that would be used during his execution and on the qualifications of his execution team."

Now, they will need to delay all of them.

[dbackjon]

3. Shameful

[Democrats_win]

80. Worst Supreme court in history!

If these were really wise people worthy of their positions, they would stop all of these executions until the problem is fixed. With corporate personhood and these cruel executions, the Roberts court surpasses the Dred Scott court. At least the Dred Scott court made the worst mistake ever, only once. This court keeps doing it over and over again. They're the worst.

The states are trying to get by on the cheap and they're making a poor showing for America. America was once a great technological country; can't we get anything right? Show some pride in our country and perform these executions with some professionalism. (Yeah, we can hate the death penalty, but if they're going to do it, do it right!)

We can't blame people--DUers or the victim's families-- for wrongly overlooking the fact that this was cruel if the Court Jesters won't get off their asses and do something!

[doxydad]

2. Again?

How the hell does this keep happening?

[Blue Idaho]

4. Two Hours...

Two hours for these sadists end this man's life.

[unreadierLizard]

5. I wonder how long his victims had

"Wood, 55, was sentenced to death in 1991 for the August 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene Dietz, in Tucson"

[Blue Idaho]

10. Don't get me wrong...

I suspect he is an evil dude and if a state has a death penalty - he likely deserved it. After all, he was tried and sentenced in a court of law. But... The state has an obligation to perform its duties with dispassion and dispatch according to the eight Ammendment to the constitution. What a state does - it does in the name of all of its citizens. I would hope that would exclude anything that may smack of torture. Frankly I would expect the same from a vet putting down a rabid dog. This is not the time nor the place for the government to apply "an eye for an eye" revenge. If we go down that road we are no better than the animals that comit these crimes.

Finally - I can think of no other method of execution that takes two hours. There must be a reason for that.

[awoke_in_2003]

23. So, we should stoop down to his level?...

The Constitution doesn't say you aren't protected from cruel and unusual punishment if you did crime (fill in the blank).

[RebelOne]

33. Yes, I am wondering the same thing.

Did his victims suffer from their gunshot wounds?

[blackspade]

36. False appeal to bloodlust and vengence.

The punishment should be about justice, not revenge.
If not, then by all means let's go back to bloodfeuds, wergeld, and honor killings.

[mbperrin]

6. I'd like to work up some sympathy for him, but I can't.

He shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and her father.

This is where my populist side overrules my progressive side.

[Veilex]

12. This isn't an issue of sympathy for him...

its about not abiding inhumane treatment on behalf of the justice system or the rest of us.
In short: We don't believe in torture...and yet, that's exactly what ended up happening here.

[candelista]

42. Yes.

[mbperrin]

68. Short of breath falls a little short of torture.

I've been wanting to bring back the guillotine for the longest (seriously),

Instant and sure.

[CoffeeCat]

75. MSNBC reported that he gasped for air 650 times...

…in those two hours.

I'd say that's pretty horrific, and surely was torture.

I don't believe in the death penalty. However, if we are going to do this, it can't be done in a haphazard, reckless way.

The problem is that this cocktail of drugs is ineffective. It is not supposed to take two hours to kill a person. This is not supposed to happen. This is a major fuck up.

That's the problem.

The company that makes the drugs that we used to use for executions, was purchased by an Italian company. The Italian company has forbid exports of the drugs to the US, because they are opposed to the death penalty and do not want the drugs being used to kill people in the US. So, we invented our own lethal cocktail. Problem is, it's not effective. It's a failure.

That needs fixing, pronto.

[Veilex]

77. "Short of breath falls a little short of torture"

Respectfully, I have to disagree with you... I have asthma... shortness of breath absolutely is torturous.

[onehandle]

18. What if he was innocent as a number on death row have been?

The kill people penalty is blind justice.

[candelista]

43. In addition, there was negligent torture.

[mbperrin]

73. Hardly torture.

He gasped and was short of breath.

Who do you think suffered more? Him or

[candelista]

78. "Short of breath"?

He gasped for air 600 times and gulped like a fish for almost 2 hours. But if you enjoy that sort of thing, I guess that's your taste in executions.

[mbperrin]

84. Several people who were there agreed that it was loud snoring,

which is caused by restricted air flow. Yes, short of breath.

HIS lawyer called it gasping for breath. And his lawyers agree that he was guilty, so there's no chance of executing the wrong person in this case. Plus he took a cruel jab at the family right at the end, saying that HE forgave THEM.

My choice in executions would be the guillotine; never fails, instant, no pain whatever.

[candelista]

86. So you believe the victims' lawyer. Ok. Your choice. :)

[mbperrin]

88. You can believe the killer's lawyers. YOUR choice.

After all, WHY would HE exaggerate?

Yeah, I can't think of a reason, either.

Even the killer's lawyer admits he did the crime, he just doesn't want him executed for it. Or anyone else, for any reason.

No agenda there.

[candelista]

89. You're right. All lawyers lie.

That's what they do for a living.

[mbperrin]

70. Even his own lawyers admit he did it, they just want to claim that he is ill.

Not blind, and there have been a few innocents on death row, but a whole lot more innocent people have been killed by criminals than that number.

[Warren Stupidity]

21. That is pretty much where you shed your humanity.

[awoke_in_2003]

24. +1000. nt

[Live and Learn]

49. +2000 nt

[mbperrin]

71. So nothing is to be done about the dead ex-girlfriend and her dad?

He shed his humanity when he killed two innocent people.

And you know what? If that claim about me shedding my humanity is meant to stick, I'll just have to work with it.

I'm not content to let killers of innocents prosper and be happy.

[Warren Stupidity]

79. "I'm not content to let killers of innocents prosper and be happy."

WTF? nobody is suggesting that. What we are suggesting is that state executions are barbaric, that they are error prone, that when we fuck up and execute the wrong person or, as in this case, completely botch an execution and torture a person to death for two hours, there is no way to undo that, it is an irredeemable offense that harms our entire society. We are alone among the north atlantic community of democracies in continuing this idiocy.

The alternative to this madness is not " let killers of innocents prosper and be happy", it is to stop killing them.

[RebelOne]

34. I have no sympathy for him.

Why does the U.S. not use a quicker method such as a shot to the head? At least it is less painful and the condemned doesn't know what hit him.

[candelista]

45. Sympathy has nothing to do with it.

Even if you hate someone, you still shouldn't torture him. And that's what this was. Negligent torture. Someone could have shot him up with 5 grains of morphine. And that would be enough to do the job. They had an hour and forty five minutes get a court order. And they didn't do it.

[nolabear]

44. Euroweenies?

Seriously, disagree and I support your right to do so, but that's just embarrassing.

[candelista]

47. Sympathy is not required.

Torture, even by negligence, makes us bad.

[rpannier]

50. Wow Euroweenies

You're quite a guy
Douche is more like it

If you think torturing to death someone is going tochange the mind of Europe you're sadly mistaken
They'll continue to let America fall down the dark rabbit hole it created for itself.
Here's hoping that those who fall land on you

[Mosby]

83. 3-4 to leave your post

[Judi Lynn]

54. Euroweenies. Is that word your creation? "They" deserve it. They're unAmerican.

Good idea mocking "them". They are so pretentious, aren't they? Always puttin' on airs. Thank goodness you got their number.

[center][/center]

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Yahoo! Keep killin' folks to prove that murder is wrong!

Makes total sense.



I sure wish we weren't such a vengeful country.

[LittleGirl]

8. We can put animals down

properly, why not humans? Good grief.

[Tumbulu]

29. My vet and I were just talking about this! Every vet has to do this most every day

it is not rocket science.

This must be deliberate as it sure is easy for vets to figure out that the sedation is not adequate and then up the amount prior to injecting the barbituates that actually kill the pateint.

[localroger]

32. The sadistic fuckers are worred they'll go a bit TOO peacefully

The reason they don't use opiates, which are very reliable, is they don't want anybody to think the perps got high before going to "sleep." Rules out several of the most effective alternatives.

[candelista]

60. +1

[Rhiannon12866]

9. Not again! How horrible!

[ripcord]

11. The mafia and the drug cartels can successfully execute people

but our government fails at it, maybe they should get out of the business.

[awoke_in_2003]

25. We should be out of it all together...

whether we can do it effectively or not. Welcome to DU

[elleng]

13. Nothing 'apparently' botched about it,

CLEARLY botched.

[Judi Lynn]

14. The government has surrendered to the lowest, the worst among us.

The man who was executed the long way undoubtedly would have been one of those who wanted to whoop it up hearing some other guy who murdered someone was tortured to death for two hours.

A civilized country would never have any room in it for sadistic crap like this.

Life is far too short to spend it plotting, scheming how to punish others to the max, and going orgasmic when they "get what's comin' to them."

There is a deeper, and higher purpose here and now, than wallowing in revenge fantasies. That's what got this Dead American where he is tonight.

[Doctor_J]

15. Steven Wright might say,

"If the inmate dies, was the execution really botched?"

Or one of Leno's ironic headlines might read "Inmate dies in botched execution". Well then, what would have happened if it hadn't been botched?

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. Inmate tortured to death in botched humane execution

Fixed.

[herding cats]

16. Just to make it clear what took place in this disgusting case.

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/

[Warren Stupidity]

19. TWO FUCKING HOURS

After our fucked courts denied efforts to open up the process.

[bigwillq]

20. Oh, the poor guy. I wonder how his victims are doing? (nt)

[BuddhaGirl]

22. Of course - it's great to be counted among

nations such as Iran, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia etc. etc.

USA! USA! USA!

[Warren Stupidity]

26. They are dead. They were not tortured to death for two hours

and we are not barbarians, or are we?

[awoke_in_2003]

27. The abyss is gazing back into you. nt

[Omaha Steve]

30. Ever heard of cruel and unusual?

Bah. Humbug. You want individual states to be just as guilty as the condemned!

[Live and Learn]

51. Murder is murder, and if you support it, you are as guilty of murder as he is (IMHO). nt

[HERVEPA]

56. Such an exceedingly dumb comment

[MisterP]

67. not resurrected, somehow--try more bloodlust!

[MountainMama]

82. Woo hoo!

[bigdarryl]

28. Can't these botched cases be taken to the UN

[EEO]

31. Ahem. Ahem.

AMENDMENT VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

That would be the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution many of the same supporters of the death penalty pretend they defend.

Oh, and I believe every country in Europe except like Belarus has a ban on the death penalty. Canada too. This country is a militarized oligarchy. And that oligarchy has decided to imprison a large minority of American citizens and has now decided it will conduct human experiments using a bunch of different drug cocktails to kill citizens.

[blackspade]

35. Disgusting.

[grahamhgreen]

38. Torture, drones, collateral damage, war, and botched executions..... who are these people?

[blkmusclmachine]

69. "New Democrats"

[No Vested Interest]

39. We need witnesses who record/film these proceedings.

These "experiments" need to be shown for what they are.
Let the world decide if they are peaceful.

[davidpdx]

40. It is situations like this that just strengthen my opposition to the death penalty

The sad thing is Arizona will not learn their lesson and will continue to execute people.

[Evergreen Emerald]

41. I wonder how much the attnys were exaggerating for their own political purpose.

I heard a radio interview with one of the victim's family members who witnessed the execution. She said there was no gasping for air. She said he was snoring.

Makes you wonder.

[Judi Lynn]

46. This would not be a story if the man had merely been sleeping. n/t

[Evergreen Emerald]

55. I don't know if that is true

It is a story because the attorneys went to the press and because it took him 2 hours to die. Whether he suffered depends on the source.

And there are plenty of "scandals" that are stories that should not be...IRS...

[rpannier]

52. Kind of like when state reps in AZ deny that prisoners are mistreated

That probably makes you wonder too

[Evergreen Emerald]

57. These were not state reps making the statements

The victims family made the statements.

[rpannier]

58. Not like they don't have a bias of any kind

I guess

[Evergreen Emerald]

59. Ummm....as do his attorneys

Right? Hopefully an independent review will find the truth.

[rpannier]

61. Yep. Hopefully it does

I will add this

An Arizona Republic journalist who witnessed the execution said he counted the inmate gasping for breath about 660 times.

"I just know it was not efficient," said the reporter, Michael Kiefer. "It took a long time."

[herding cats]

63. She wanted vengence

Jeanne Brown, sister of Debra Dietz and daughter of Eugene Dietz, both Wood's murder victims, witnessed the execution. She said it sounded more like Wood was snoring than gasping for air.

"What I saw with him today being executed -- this was nothing," she said.

Brown said what Wood experienced Wednesday did not compare to the pain her family has suffered for the past 25 years.

"You don't know what excruciating is -- seeing your dad lying there in a pool of blood ... This man deserved it," she said. "And I shouldn't call him a man. He deserved everything he had coming to him."

Her husband, Richard Brown, scolded the media for what he perceived as more compassion for a convicted killer than the true victims and their surviving family.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2014/07/23/arizona-execution-botched/13070677/

She wanted him to suffer and she was very happy he did. That still doesn't make it right.

[Democrats_win]

81. I was shocked to hear the victim's family's comments.

Of course we must be understanding of their feelings but they deserve justice not vengeance.

If the Supreme Joke isn't professional and the state leaders show no professionalism, I guess we can't expect the family to show restraint and say, "No comment."

What would God do? The story of Moses parting the Red Sea tells how the Israelites cheered at the destruction of the pursuing Egyptian army. They were quickly reprimanded and told that God is sad that they had to be killed. (I guess the soldiers were really just doing their jobs.) No more cheering. If something wrong happens to you, should you cheer when something wrong happens to someone else?

It's a tough sell to a family that did suffer quite a bit, but that's why people PRACTICE their religion. Practice to remain righteous and not sin. Yeah, as if today's organized religions are even capable of that! The whole thing is shocking and disappointing.

[lastlib]

53. When are we going to PUT.AN.END to this barbaric insanity?!?

It is past time that we say to the world, "We are not going to kill any more."!

[Pogue]

64. When? Never, as long as we continue to confuse punishment with revenge.

Unfortunately, many don't care about the confusion because revenge is just fine with them. As unfortunate is the fact that many of those who recognize the confusion simply throw up their hands because effecting the change is "too hard."

[candelista]

62. The RW is spamming the Yahoo News story on this.

What a bunch of bloodthirsty keyboard cowboys!

Here:

http://news.yahoo.com/arizona-inmate-dies-2-hours-execution-began-230855668.html

[PeteSelman]

65. Doesn't "botched" imply that it didn't work?

He's dead, it worked.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

66. Where the hell are they buying this shit?

I have visions of some sketchy drug dealer in a motel room tearing open China Post bubble mailers and cutting this shit with hand sanitizer or something.

[blkmusclmachine]

72. Reading all the bloodlust here makes me think FreeRepublik must be down tonight.

[Kablooie]

74. Republicans are so excited over killing someone they disregard the Constitution.

Even our Supreme Court ignores the prohibition of inflicting cruel and unusual punishments because the opportunity to kill someone is much more important to them than doing their job of upholding the Constitution.
That's why Republicans want wars all the time.
People will be killed and maimed and it's just great fun and a delight to know that it's happening.

As long as it isn't happening to them.

[quadrature]

76. have any famous celebs professed their solidarity with Joseph?

typo, the --> their

[yurbud]

85. every time I hear "botched execution," I think about the sadistic guard in THE GREEN MILE

who's supposed to wet the sponge that goes in the skullcap so the guy getting electrocuted is killed more quickly, but he only pretends to do it so the execution will take longer.

Right wingers are not really on board with the whole "cruel and unusual" being a bad thing.