The Death Penalty was always considered a cruel means of dealing with delinquents, and executions have not become easier to deal with in the past decades. A recent case has surfaced in Arizona. It seems that the Arizona Supreme Court lifted the brief stay of Joseph Wood’s execution, on Wednesday. This man argued about the constitutionality of the drugs which will be used in his injection later today, and he has all the right to do so.
There has been a similar situation this year. Clayton Lockett received Midazolam in his injection combination. Reports from Oklahoma officials say that it took approximately 43 minutes for him to die. That is in no way civilized. Several witnesses discussed the execution process. First of all, state officials claim that Lockett was unconscious during the whole thing, but CNN affiliate KFOR, declared that the inmate muttered the words “Man”, “I’m not” and ‘something’s wrong” before the blinds were shut close on the execution chamber. Dan Sanderford, his lawyer, also said that the body of the inmate twitched and convulsed before taking its last breath.
These reports have raised concerns, especially for the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety. Gov. Mary Fallin is determined to find out what happened, and he is investigating whether or not prison officials followed protocols. He wants to know how he can prevent anything like this from ever happening again.
Coming back to the case at hand, Joseph Wood, from Arizona was scheduled to be executed at 10 AM (local time – 1 PM ET), however, the execution was temporarily halted when the court decided to consider his request for the justices to review his claims. Strangely enough, the stay was lifted almost immediately, with no explanation. The court simply decided that it does not want to review Wood’s case.
Joseph Wood is the country’s latest death row inmate, and he is arguing the fact that the new anesthetic used for the fatal concoction is not strong enough to knock out an inmate (reference to the Lockett case). Ultimately, this may lead to an agonizing death for the inmate. Sadly for him, Doug Nick, the spokesman for Arizona Department of Corrections, declared that the execution would happen Wednesday afternoon.
Among other things that he argued about, Wood was also disgruntled by the fact that the state was going to use an “experimental” drug protocol of hydromorphone and midazolam. He also mentioned that the execution should be stopped because his attorney proved ineffective, and that he had received new evaluations from experts, according to which his cognitive impairments made him unable of premeditated murder.
At the moment, midazolam is used because sodium thiopental (a substance regularly used for execution) was no longer available in the country.
