Stefanie Faucher
Arizona Republic - Montini: Execution not botched? Yeah, well, the 'review' was
Associated Press - Arizona will change drugs used in executions
Reuters - Arizona to change lethal injection drugs after drawn-out execution
Los Angeles Times - Arizona to change execution drugs used on inmate who took two hours to die
NBC News - Arizona Scraps Drug Cocktail After Joseph Wood's Two-Hour Execution
CNN - Two-hour execution followed correct protocol, says independent report
The Verge - Arizona to change lethal injection drugs after botched execution
UPI - Arizona to ditch drug cocktail used in 2-hour execution
Arizona Republic - Arizona: Wood execution not botched, but drug cocktail to change
Tuscon News Now - Report: Wood execution handled appropriately
KJZZ-FM - Arizona Department of Corrections To Change Drugs Used In Lethal Injection
Newser - Arizona Makes Changes After 'Not Botched' Execution
Yellow Sheet Report - It worked so well we’re not doing it again
----
Execution not botched? Yeah, well, the 'review' was.
By EJ Montini, December 22, 2014
Is it any surprise that an independent review that isn't independent decides that a botched execution was not botched?
When the murderer Joseph Wood was executed in July he gasped and snored for two hours while his executioner injected him with 15 lethal doses.
Not botched?
Not according to Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan, to told Gov. Jan Brewer in letter that Wood was heavily sedated and did not experience pain.
Really?
And we know this because ... ?
That's what the "independent" report says?
That's the problem.
We can't draw an informed conclusion about just how badly the execution was botched because the review process was most definitely botched. It's simple: An independent review can't be done in-house.
Now, Ryan proposes to continue using the drug Midazolam (which has been linked to problem executions) only he wants to create a three-drug protocol instead of the two-drug cocktail used on Wood.
I'd guess that all of us would feel a lot better about that suggestion if it were to come as a result of a genuinely independent investigation into what went wrong with the Wood execution.
And, yes, something DID go wrong.
The condemned man died, of course. But in what barbaric world is a two-hour horror show with gasping, snoring and 15 doses of deadly drugs determined to be a success?
Ours.
----
http://www.wbtw.com/story/27688500/arizona-will-change-drugs-used-in-executions
Arizona will change drugs used in executions
By ASTRID GALVAN, December 22, 2014
TUCSON, Ariz. — Arizona officials said Monday they have been cleared of any wrongdoing in an execution this year that lasted nearly two hours, but they are nevertheless changing the drugs they use to put inmates to death.
According to a letter from Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan to Gov. Jan Brewer, the department no longer will use the combination of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller.
Instead, the agency will try to obtain pentobarbital or Sodium Pentothal, the powerful sedative also known as sodium thiopental that was used in lethal injections in Arizona until it became difficult to obtain.
Pentobarbital has been successfully used dozens of times in Texas, Georgia and Missouri but also is in short supply. Records obtained by The Associated Press show Texas has enough pentobarbital to carry out the first five lethal injections scheduled there in 2015.
If Arizona cannot acquire those drugs, it will use a three-drug combination that can include midazolam and potassium chloride, among others. That three-drug mix has been used successfully in eight executions in Florida, according to the report.
The July 23 execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood, convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her father, Debbie and Gene Dietz, called into question the efficacy of the drugs used in Arizona after it took nearly two hours for Wood to die. He was given 15 doses of the drugs and gasped over and over before taking his final breath.
Wood's attorney, Dale Baich, says the execution was botched.
But results from an independent investigation conducted by a group of former corrections directors and experts found no protocols were broken and the state properly trained its execution team. The findings released Monday also show Wood was injected correctly but did not react to the drugs as expected.
The three-member team recommended the changes to the drugs used.
"The report is clear that the execution of inmate Wood was handled in accordance with all department procedures, which, as the report states, either meet or exceed national standards," Ryan said in a statement. "It was done appropriately and with the utmost professionalism."
But Baich was unsatisfied, saying the report failed to explain why the experimental drug protocol did not work as promised.
"The state should release all of the documentation and witness reports that went into this review," Baich said. "Only through discovery in a court of law will there be a truly independent and comprehensive examination of what went wrong during Mr. Wood's nearly two-hour execution."
The state has put on hold all executions pending the outcome of a lawsuit stemming from Wood's execution.
The lawsuit was filed in June on behalf of Wood and other death-row inmates. It claims the inmates have a First Amendment right to know about specific execution protocols such as the types of drugs used in lethal injections and the companies that supply them.
The independent investigation reviewed drug combinations and other execution protocols of several states, including Ohio, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri.
The investigators compared Wood's execution with that of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma on April 29. The same sedative was used in both, but Oklahoma officials have said the catheters were improperly placed on Lockett, restricting the drugs' flow.
Lockett writhed, mumbled and lifted his head on the gurney during the 43 minutes it took him to die.
A federal judge is expected to rule Monday on whether that drug combination is constitutional.
Wood did not feel pain, the investigation found. The lead doctor said he performed seven consciousness tests and found Wood was unresponsive. The doctor said he used a pin to prick Wood but got no response.
"The process and the implementation of the protocol was not 'botched' as has been described in the Lockett execution," the investigators wrote.
Pima County Medical Examiner Gregory Hess told investigators it's possible Wood was brain dead long before he died, and that gasps and snorting are "normal bodily responses to dying," according to the report. The autopsy findings in Wood's death have not been publicly released.
---
Arizona to change lethal injection drugs after drawn-out execution
By David Schwartz, December 22, 2014 6:58 p.m. EST
PHOENIX, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Arizona will no longer use the two-drug lethal injection cocktail it employed to execute a convicted killer in July after the man took almost two hours to die, the state's prison chief said on Monday.
Charles Ryan said Arizona will instead use only one of the two drugs used in the cocktail. But those drugs have become difficult to obtain following the execution of Joseph Wood, who witnesses said struggled for breath after he was injected with 15 times the amount of drugs set out in state protocols.
A three-drug combination also would be considered, Ryan said in a letter to outgoing Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who called for the review into the July 23 execution.
The changes were outlined in a report by a consultant that reviewed Wood's controversial execution, which critics said was botched and brought demands that procedures be changed.
The review found no wrongdoing by state officials.
"The report is clear that the execution of inmate Wood was handled in accordance with all department procedures, which ... either meet or exceed national standards," Ryan said in a statement. "It was done appropriately and with the utmost professionalism."
Ryan said Wood was deeply sedated, and that as a result he "did not suffer."
Dale Baich, one of Wood's attorney, said he wants the state to release more of the information that went into the review.
"The report released today does not answer the question of why the experimental drug protocol did not work as promised," Baich said.
Wood was found guilty in 1991 of fatally shooting his former girlfriend Debbie Dietz, 29, and her father, Gene Dietz, 55, two years earlier at a Tucson automobile body shop.
The complications in putting him to death, which followed two other lethal injections that went awry earlier this year in Ohio and Oklahoma, intensified debate over the death penalty and prompted Arizona to suspend executions pending the review.
Last week, Oklahoma Department of Corrections officials told a federal court that the state plans to continue using the same lethal injection drug combination which it used for the bungled execution of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett. (Reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Eric Beech)
---
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-arizona-execution-drugs-20141222-story.html
Arizona to change execution drugs used on inmate who took two hours to die
By LAUREN RAAB, December 22, 2014
Arizona plans to stop employing the drug combination it used to execute an inmate who took nearly two hours to die, the head of the state Department of Corrections said. Also on Monday, a federal judge in Oklahoma upheld that state's lethal injection protocol, thereby ruling executions could resume.
In July, inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood III was injected with 15 separate doses of the drug combination — hydromorphone and midazolam — because the initial dose didn’t seem to be enough to kill him, according to documents the Corrections Department released to Wood’s attorney.
An independent review found that throughout the July 23 execution, Wood “was fully sedated, was totally unresponsive to stimuli, and as a result did not suffer,” Corrections Department Director Charles L. Ryan said Monday in a statement.
However, Ryan told Gov. Jan Brewer in a letter Monday that the department will stop using that drug protocol. Instead, it will add two three-drug combinations as options. One-drug protocols — using either pentobarbital or Sodium Pentothal — will also remain options, Ryan said, although the state has recently been unable to procure those chemicals.
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.
Witnesses and his attorneys said Wood gasped and snorted for more than 90 minutes before he died.
According to the review, the Pima County medical examiner, Dr. Gregory Hess, “noted that gasps, snorting, and body reflexes are the normal bodily responses to dying” but “provided no explanation of why the drugs did not result in death in a short time period.”
An independent physician also could not explain why the first dose of drugs was not enough, the review said.
Wood was the only inmate executed in Arizona this year. The state has 121 inmates on death row, but no upcoming executions are scheduled, a spokesman for the Arizona Corrections Department told the Los Angeles Times.
In Oklahoma, more than 20 death row inmates sued after the April execution of Michael Worthington, who writhed, mumbled and lifted his head during the 43 minutes between when his execution began and when he died. Toward the end, the state called off the execution, but Worthington died minutes later of a heart attack. Lockett, 38, had been convicted of the 1999 kidnapping and murder of Stephanie Neiman in Perry, Okla.
In their lawsuit, inmates claimed the first drug administered, meant to render the person unconscious before the lethal mixtures were injected, did not work properly. A state investigation, on the other hand, blamed the problems in carrying out the sentence on the use and monitoring of an intravenous line.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot determined that Oklahoma's lethal injection protocols are constitutional.
The state has purchased new medical equipment, adopted new execution protocols and ordered more training, and prison officials say they're ready for the execution of Charles Frederick Warner on Jan. 15. Three other lethal injections have been scheduled through March 5.
---[
Arizona Scraps Drug Cocktail After Joseph Wood's Two-Hour Execution
By Tracy Connor, December 22, 2014
Oklahoma's controversial lethal injection protocols are constitutional and the state can proceed with the scheduled executions of four death row inmates early next year, a federal judge ruled on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot denied a request for a preliminary injunction that was requested by a group of 21 Oklahoma death row inmates who argued the use of the sedative midazolam as the first drug in a three-drug combination the state administers risks subjecting them to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.
The inmates sued after the April 29 execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhed on the gurney, mumbled and lifted his head during his 43-minute execution that the state tried to halt before it was over. Lockett's execution was the first in Oklahoma using midazolam, which also has been used in problematic executions in Ohio and Arizona.
Arizona meanwhile is scrapping its lethal injection protocol, used in the execution of Joseph Wood, which lasted nearly two hours and took 15 doses. Officials announced the change Monday after a state-commissioned review of the troubling July execution, even as they insisted it was "handled appropriately."
The three-drug protocol that Arizona now plans to use — midazolam, the paralytic vecuronium bromide and the heart-stopper potassium chloride — is the same combination that Oklahoma used in the botched execution of Lockett.
An investigation found improper placement of the IV, and not the drugs themselves, caused that debacle, in which Lockett regained consciousness.
Witnesses to Wood's execution described him gasping for more than an hour, and an emergency hearing on whether to stop the procedure and try to resuscitate him was under way when the inmate was finally pronounced dead. In a statement Monday, Corrections Director Charles Ryan said an outside review of the execution showed it was "done appropriately and with the utmost professionalism."
"This independent review concluded that at all times following the administration of the execution protocol the inmate was fully sedated, was totally unresponsive to stimuli, and as a result did not suffer," he added. "In fact, the Pima County medical examiner is cited as reporting that the breathing pattern exhibited by the inmate prior to his death is a normal bodily response to dying, even in someone highly sedated."
Dale Baich, a lawyer for Wood, said the probe did not explain why the drugs did not work the way prison officials intended.
"The state should release all of the documentation and witness reports that went into this review. Only through discovery in a court of law will there be a truly independent and comprehensive examination of what went wrong during Mr. Wood's nearly two-hour execution," he said.
-----
http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/22/justice/arizona-execution-controversy/
Two-hour execution followed correct protocol, says independent report
By Mayra Cuevas, December 22, 2014
(CNN) -- An independent report released Monday into the execution of Arizona inmate Joseph Wood revealed the state's Department of Corrections followed protocol.
"This independent review concluded that at all times following the administration of the execution protocol, the inmate was fully sedated, was totally unresponsive to stimuli, and as a result did not suffer," said Corrections Director Charles Ryan.
"In fact, the Pima County medical examiner is cited as reporting that the breathing pattern exhibited by the inmate prior to his death is a normal bodily response to dying, even in someone highly sedated," Ryan said.
The report timeline for the July 23 execution confirmed previous accounts that it took two hours for Woods to die after the first drug protocol was administered at 1:40 p.m. And after the first lethal injection failed to kill Wood, executioners gave him 14 additional doses of a two-drug cocktail.
During those two hours, witnesses including Wood's attorney claimed to have seen Wood snorting and struggling to breathe.
Troy Hayden, a media witness from KSAZ, likened Wood's breathing to a "fish gulping for air."
The report timeline did not remark on Wood's breathing. After the staff administered a dose, they confirmed that Wood remained sedated.
"The medical examiner in this case offered no apparent explanation for the time lapse that occurred in the Wood execution," read the report. "The IV team leader, medical examiner and an independent correctional health expert agreed that the dosage administered was sufficient to cause death in a relatively short period of time. All agreed that the dosage of midazolam would result in heavy sedation."
The two-drug cocktail itself -- a mix of midazolam and hydromorphone -- came into question.
Wood's attorney, Dale Baich, argued the report did not "answer the question of why the experimental drug protocol did not work as promised."
In an open letter, Ryan told Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer he intends to stop using the midazolam and hydromorphone cocktail and instead use a one-drug injection or a three-drug cocktail.
"Based on this report, I forwarded my assessment to Governor Jan Brewer that the state continue efforts to procure drugs for the one-drug protocol, and begin the process to adopt three-drug protocols, as opposed to utilizing a modified two-drug protocol," Ryan said.
Baich said he warned the Department of Corrections of the two-drug combination long before the execution.
"The pre-identified problems came true," Baich said. "The decision to now remove this formula is an acknowledgment by the Arizona Department of Corrections that it was wrong in choosing this combination of chemicals."
The independent review came at Brewer's request. She directed the Department of Corrections to review the process citing concerns over the amount of time it took for Wood to die.
A federal judge ordered local officials to preserve all physical evidence in Wood's execution.
Wood was convicted of murder and assault in the 1989 deaths of his estranged girlfriend and her father.
"You don't know what excruciating is. What's excruciating is seeing your dad laying there in a pool of blood, seeing you sister laying there in a pool of blood. This man deserved it. And I shouldn't really call him a man," said Jeanne Brown, a relative of Wood's victims.
Wood was the latest American death row inmate to argue that an anesthetic recently introduced in some states' execution protocols could fail to sufficiently knock out the inmate ahead of the lethal drugs, subjecting the person to an agonizing death.
Wood claimed among other things that the state was going to use an "experimental" drug protocol.
In documents filed with the state Supreme Court, Wood contended the use of the anesthetic midazolam was problematic in recent U.S. executions and that it would violate the Constitution's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.
Some states turned to midazolam this decade after they could no longer get sodium thiopental, a drug that was regularly used for executions. A U.S. manufacturer stopped producing sodium thiopental in 2009, and countries that still produce it won't allow its export to the United States for use in lethal injections.
Earlier this year, Oklahoma put executions on hold after the controversial execution of Clayton Lockett. Midazolam was part of the injection combination, and it took 43 minutes for him to die, Oklahoma officials said.
The Arizona report remarked on the differences with the Oklahoma case.
"Staff performance in no way contributed to the extended time lapse from initiation of the drug protocol to pronouncement of death. As noted, the execution was not 'botched" in comparison to what occurred in Oklahoma with Clayton Lockett," said the report.
But Baich remains unconvinced.
"The state should release all of the documentation and witness reports that went into this review. Only through discovery in a court of law will there be a truly independent and comprehensive examination of what went wrong during Mr. Wood's nearly two-hour execution," he said.
----
Arizona to change lethal injection drugs after botched execution
By Adi Robertson on December 22, 2014 06:41 pm
Arizona is changing the mixture of drugs it uses for lethal injections after an execution this summer left an inmate alive for almost two hours, the Associated Press reports. In a letter to Governor Jan Brewer, Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan said that the state would be abandoning its current sedative and painkiller combination, potentially replacing it with an older alternative. The news comes in response to an independent report investigating the death of Joseph Rudolph Wood, a convicted murderer who was executed by lethal injection earlier this year. The process, which should have taken minutes to work, dragged on as Wood "gasped and snorted," eventually taking an hour and 57 minutes before he was pronounced dead. It's the latest incident to raise questions about whether lethal injection, adopted as a supposedly more humane alternative to older execution methods, can actually deliver a painless death.
According to the AP, the report found that prison staff carried out the execution correctly. Instead, the problem was that Wood "did not react to the drugs as expected." The mixture, a combination of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone, is a relatively new adoption, and there are questions about whether it's an ethical or effective choice for capital punishment. Its provenance also isn't clear; in the wake of Wood's death, several news outlets sued the state, asking it to reveal the source of the drug. For the past several years, states have been filling the void left by a shortage of traditional lethal injection drugs. The Dutch company behind one of these, the barbiturate Nembutal or pentobarbital, announced in 2011 that it would refuse to sell its products for use in executions. Ryan plans to switch to a combination of pentobarbital and sodium pentothal if possible, falling back on a three-drug combination if the state can't find supplies.
Wood's death is one of several failed or prolonged lethal injections. Earlier in 2014, Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett suddenly regained consciousness during his execution; it was stopped, but Lockett died soon after of a heart attack. The problem reportedly stemmed from a misplaced needle, and the White House condemned Lockett's death as inhumane. Oklahoma and Arizona, along with other states, have temporarily halted executions as they investigate the deaths.
----
Arizona to ditch drug cocktail used in 2-hour execution
By Danielle Haynes, Dec. 22, 2014 at 8:23 PM
PHOENIX, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Arizona will no longer be using a two-drug cocktail it used in the execution of Joseph Wood, who died after two hours and 15 doses of the drug.
A review of state's lethal injection protocol found Wood's execution was "handled appropriately," yet determined a two-drug combination of midazolam and hydromorphone would no longer be used.
The state began using the combination drug after the European Union voted in 2011 to prohibit the sale of pentobarbital, which was previously used in lethal injections in the United States.
Wood's attorney, Dale Baich, blamed the use of midazolam and hydromorphone for the extended amount of time it took his client to die. The combination drug had only been used one other time in the United States, in Ohio.
"The experiment using midazolam combined with hydromorphone to carry out an execution failed today in Arizona," Baich said at the time of Wood's death.
"This independent review concluded that at all times following the administration of the execution protocol the inmate was fully sedated, was totally unresponsive to stimuli, and as a result did not suffer," Corrections Director Charles Ryan said Monday of Wood's execution. "In fact, the Pima County medical examiner is cited as reporting that the breathing pattern exhibited by the inmate prior to his death is a normal bodily response to dying, even in someone highly sedated."
The Arizona Department of Corrections will now use a three-drug cocktail, which also includes midazolam. The paralytic vecuronium bromide and the heart-stopper potassium chloride are also part of the new combination drug.
Wood was given the death penalty for the 1989 seats of his estranged girlfriend and her father.
----
http://ux.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/2014/12/22/arizona-execution-drug-change/20774877/
Arizona: Wood execution not botched, but drug cocktail to change
By Michael Kiefer, December 22, 2014
Five months after Arizona death-row inmate Joseph Wood gasped and snored for nearly two hours on an execution gurney before dying, a review of the incident by current and former Corrections officials found no explanation of what went wrong.
But the Arizona Department of Corrections issued a press release saying the execution by lethal injection "was not botched," and agency Director Charles Ryan said, "The report is clear that the execution of inmate Wood was handled in accordance with all department procedures, which, as the report states, either meet or exceed national standards. It was done appropriately and with the utmost professionalism."
Wood, 55, was sentenced to death for killing two people in Tucson in 1989. In the weeks before his execution on July 23, Wood's attorneys petitioned the court to compel more information about the drug midazolam, which had been used in at least two other flawed executions in prior months.
The U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution that would have forced the state to provide that information. Then witnesses watched as Wood's execution took 10 times longer than usual. Executioners injected Wood with 15 ostensibly lethal doses of a cocktail of midazolam, a Valium-like drug, and a narcotic, hydromorphone, before he finally died.
Execution by lethal injection usually takes about 10 minutes.
Ryan ordered an independent review. Many of the interviews were to be conducted by the Corrections Department inspector general's office, then reviewed by a consulting firm made up of former directors of state corrections departments.
A company called CGL and "its partner, Correctional Solutions" carried out the review, according to the corrections report.
"The Arizona execution protocol explicitly stated that a prisoner would be executed using 50 milligrams of hydromorphone and 50 milligrams of midazolam," said Dale Baich, one of Wood's attorneys. "The report released today does not answer the question of why the experimental drug protocol did not work as promised."
The 50-page report, released Monday afternoon, mostly describes the Arizona protocol and compares it with those of other states identified only as States B through F, then concludes that the Arizona procedures "equaled or surpassed the provisions contained in the protocol standards reviewed from the other jurisdictions," and that "the training regime that was documented for all team members could serve as national standards for other systems."
The report also details the prescribed procedures and the logs showing how the Wood execution was carried out. But when it comes to explaining what went wrong, the report refers to the doctor who was the execution-team leader, who "felt" that Wood's heavy breathing was "reflexive" and not an indication of suffering. The doctor did not know why the dosage did not work.
The report also quotes Pima County Medical Examiner Gregory Hess as saying that gasps and snorts are "normal bodily responses to dying," that he also did not know why the dosage did not work as expected, and that there was nothing unusual about Wood's autopsy.
A correctional-health expert who was not identified by name also said he could not explain why the execution took so long. The independent expert suggested using midazolam in a three-drug protocol similar to that used in a botched execution in Oklahoma.
Baich said, "The state should release all of the documentation and witness reports that went into this review."
Also on Monday, Ryan, the Corrections director, wrote a letter to Gov. Jan Brewer saying that despite how long the execution took, "inmate Wood remained heavily sedated throughout the process. ... The review also concluded that Arizona's execution protocol is detailed and comprehensive in scope in regard to all aspects of the process."
Then Ryan noted his intent to alter the drug protocol for executions. He said he would retain the option of using a single-drug method using either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital; those drugs were used effectively in executions until their manufacturers made them unavailable for that use.
But Ryan also wants to add the option of using a three-drug succession that starts with midazolam to sedate the inmate, then uses a paralytic drug to render the inmate motionless and adds potassium chloride to stop the heart. Until 2010, when it became unavailable for executions, thiopental was used as the first of a three-drug protocol. Ryan said he would like to reintroduce that option in the event his department can obtain thiopental.
Wood's attorneys have already filed suit in federal court over the execution and the corrections department's reluctance to disclose information. That suit was stayed in November pending the release of today's report, which, according to court filings, was supposed to be released in mid-November.
A joint stipulation between the state and Wood's attorneys states that Ryan cannot change the protocol without notifying the plaintiffs, at which point the litigation will become active again. The state agreed not to seek warrants to execute other inmates until the judge ruled.
A separate lawsuit filed by The Arizona Republic and a coalition of other media outlets demands more transparency in how executions are carried out.
Lethal-injection timeline
1992: Donald Eugene Harding is executed by gas chamber, the first Arizona execution in 29 years. Harding's body convulses, and he gasps and chokes for 10 minutes. Outcry over his death leads to a switch to lethal injection.
March 1993: John George Brewer is the first Arizona inmate to be executed using lethal injection.
September 2007: The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the cases of two Kentucky death-row inmates who argue lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.
October 2007: The execution of Jeffrey Landrigan, who killed a man in Phoenix in 1989, is stayed while the Supreme Court ponders the Kentucky case. Landrigan's attorneys file a similar case in U.S. District Court in Phoenix on behalf of other death-row inmates.
Spring 2008: A federal judge in Tennessee and a state judge in Ohio rule that the risk of an agonizing or painful death is too great because of the three-chemical procedure.
April 16, 2008: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states can use lethal injections for execution, unless there is "significant risk" that those being executed would suffer excruciating pain. That opens the door to challenges of the drug protocols used to execute inmates.
June 15, 2008: Attorneys for Landrigan file a petition in Maricopa County Superior Court arguing that Arizona's lethal-injection procedure is too complex and risky to pass constitutional muster.
March 17, 2009: The Arizona Supreme Court refuses the state's request for a death warrant to execute Daniel Wayne Cook, saying his execution and that of Landrigan should not move ahead until the courts can evaluate Arizona's execution methods.
July 2, 2009: A federal judge rules that Arizona's lethal-injection procedure is constitutional and meets the test established by the U.S. Supreme Court.
October 2010: Landrigan is executed by lethal injection. His attorneys wanted assurances that Arizona's thiopental had been lawfully obtained and would be effective, so as not to constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The state resisted disclosing the information. The Republic, however, learned the drug had come from Britain.
October 2013: Midazolam first appears when Florida carries out an execution using it as part of a three-drug protocol. According to reports, inmate William Happ blinks repeatedly and shakes his head from side to side before dying. In most lethal injections with thiopental and pentobarbital, the condemned merely loses consciousness.
July 23: Joseph Wood, 55, is executed for killing two people in Tucson in 1989. It takes nearly two hours and 15 doses of the execution-drug cocktail for Wood to die.
----
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/27688462/report-wood-execution-handled-appropriately
Report: Wood execution handled appropriately
Dec 22, 2014
TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - An independent review team has concluded that the Arizona Department of Corrections handled the July execution of Joseph Wood appropriately. The report from the team confirms that Wood was "heavily sedated" and "totally unresponsive to stimuli" shortly after the execution drug protocol was administered, and throughout the entire process. Meanwhile, state officials will no longer administer the two-drug combination used in the nearly two-hour execution on July 23. The state will instead try to obtain drugs that were successfully used for many years but have become obsolete and difficult to obtain. If the state cannot get those drugs, it will use a different three-drug combination that will include midazolam, the sedative used in Wood's death. European drugmakers' new restrictions have left states scrambling. Wood was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her father. It took nearly two hours for him to die. His attorneys said the execution was botched, but the report found it was not. The state has put other executions on hold. The independent review was conducted by a three-member team from Correctional Solutions, Inc., through its partner, CGL. The team was comprised of the former director of the corrections systems in both Illinois and Michigan, the former director of corrections in Nevada and Virginia, and a former undersecretary for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Additionally, the report was reviewed by an independent correctional health care expert physician familiar with the administration of drugs during lethal injections. This individual is a board-certified diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a diplomate of the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians. The report's key findings and recommendations include: There were "no breakdowns in the implementation of the process or the mechanical systems supporting the execution… Staff performance in no way contributed to the extended time lapse from initiation of the drug protocol to pronouncement of death. As noted the execution was not ‘botched'…"
The Pima County medical examiner, who performed the autopsy, "offered no apparent explanation for the time lapse that occurred… The IV team leader (a licensed M.D.), medical examiner and an independent correctional health expert agreed that the dosage administered was sufficient to cause death in a relatively short period of time. All agreed that the dosage of midazolam would result in heavy sedation."
In regards to the use of the two-drug protocol as opposed to the one-drug procedure previously used, "discussion with other state administrators… indicate that many states are facing the same challenge as Arizona in terms of access to the preferred chemicals…"
ADC Execution Protocols are "detailed, specific in terms of responsibilities, comprehensive in scope and provide guidance and direction for all elements of the execution process."
Following a review of the protocols of 10 other states, the report cites that ADC's protocols "meets or exceeds the standards established by other states…"
The ADC should review the Wood event with the IV team leader and toxicologists and "develop contingencies if a similar delay occurs in the future."
It is recommended that ADC continue efforts to obtain the drugs needed to "retain the one-drug option currently included in the protocol…"
Further, it is recommended that ADC "replace the existing two-drug option" (used in the Wood execution) and implement a three-drug protocol that "has been adopted by at least four other (corrections) systems in the past year and is considered reliable and effective by those systems. Florida successfully utilized this drug protocol for eight executions in 2014…" If access to the drugs referenced in the three-drug protocol becomes problematic, "the ADC should consider (emphasis added) using the same mixture as utilized in the Wood case but at higher doses… Other state systems have adopted this enhanced dosage as a contingency in the event that preferred drugs are not accessible."
Stay with Tucson News Now for more on this late breaking story.
----
http://kjzz.org/content/81729/arizona-department-corrections-change-drugs-used-lethal-injection
Arizona Department of Corrections To Change Drugs Used In Lethal Injection
By Carrie Jung, December 22, 2014
The Arizona Department of Corrections has decided to change the drugs used in lethal injections following a controversial execution earlier this year. The decision was announced in a letter to the Governor on Monday.
The execution drugs used in Arizona came under scrutiny after death-row inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood was observed gasping for breath for almost two hours while being put to death in July.
A review panel made up of former corrections directors and experts determined all procedures were followed correctly but recommended changes to the two-drug combination the state used.
Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Doug Nick said they’ll go back to using a single drug, either Pentobarbital or Sodium Pentothal. But since those drugs can be difficult to acquire, officials will consider another option.
"We will be looking at a three-drug protocol that has been used successfully in the state of Florida and some other jurisdictions this year," Nick said.
Wood’s attorneys disagreed with the report’s findings, but did not comment on the drug change.
----
http://www.newser.com/story/200340/arizona-makes-changes-after-not-botched-execution.html
Arizona Makes Changes After 'Not Botched' Execution
JUDGE RULES THAT OKLAHOMA CAN RESUME EXECUTIONS
By Rob Quinn, Dec 23, 2014
NEWSER) – Arizona's execution of Joseph Wood was "not botched," a state-commissioned review has concluded, even though it took almost two hours for him to die. The director of Arizona's Department of Corrections says the lethal injection was "done appropriately and with the utmost professionalism," the Arizona Republic reports, although none of the experts quoted in the review could explain why it took 15 doses of a supposedly lethal cocktail to execute Woods, or why a procedure that usually takes 10 minutes lasted so long. The state now plans to change its lethal injection protocol and use the same three-drug combination that Oklahoma used in the botched execution of Clayton Lockett earlier this year, reports NBC.
Oklahoma hasn't executed anybody since Lockett, but it plans to proceed with four executions early next year after a federal judge ruled that its lethal injection protocol is constitutional, reports the AP. The judge ruled against a group of 21 death row inmates who argued that the use of the sedative midazolam—which Oklahoma was using for the first time in Lockett's execution—could constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Lawyers for the state said the problem in Lockett's execution wasn't the drug but an improperly set IV line, and the judge said he placed "considerable reliance" on Oklahoma to have better procedures in place for the upcoming executions.
----
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2014/12/23/it-worked-so-well-were-not-doing-it-again/
It worked so well we’re not doing it again
By: Yellow Sheet Report, December 23, 2014 , 7:28 am
A report commissioned by the Dept of Corrections on the execution of Joseph Wood found no fault in the agency’s two-drug protocol. Still, consultants who prepared the report, which was released today (Dec. 22), recommended that DOC ditch the protocol. Subsequently, DOC Director Charles Ryan has decided not to use the two-drug combination of midazolam and hydromorphone in executions.
To read more on this item plus all the stories in the December 22 Yellow Sheet Report, go to www.yellowsheetreport.com (Yellow Sheet Subscription Required).
--