Latest execution fuels lethal injection debate

Texas: Lisa Coleman, scheduled to die Sept. 17 from a single dose of compounded pentobarbital for the starvation of a 9-year-old boy a decade ago.

Ohio:Ronald Phillips, scheduled to die Sept. 18 from a combination of midazolam and hydromorphone for the 1993 rape and death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in Akron.

— Associated Press

The nation’s third prolonged execution in six months offers more evidence for the courts that lethal injection carries too many risks and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, death row lawyers and other opponents said Thursday.

Death penalty opponents say the execution of an Arizona inmate who took almost two hours to die shows that state experiments with different drugs and dosages are a callous trial-and-error process. The result: Every few months, an inmate gasps, chokes and takes an unusually long time to die.

“These executions are experiments on human subjects,” said Cheryl Pilate, an attorney for several Missouri death-row inmates. “The potential for things to go wrong is almost unlimited.”

But Jeffrey A. Zick, a lawyer for the state, told a judge the inmate was in no pain during the execution.

About 90 minutes into the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood, Judge Neil V. Wake convened an urgent hearing in which the participants discussed Wood’s brain activity, heart rate and whether he were feeling pain.

Zick spoke to the Arizona Department of Corrections director on the phone and was given assurances from medical staff at the prison that Wood was not in any pain. Zick also said the governor’s office was notified of the situation.

“The director indicated that in consultation with the IV team leader, who is a medical doctor, Mr. Wood is apparently comatose; that he cannot change course at his point,” Zick told the judge, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Zick said at one point, a second dose of drugs was given, but he did not provide specifics.

“I am told that Mr. Wood is effectively brain dead and that this is the type of reaction that one gets if they were taken off of life support. The brain stem is working but there’s no brain activity,” Zick said, according to the transcript.

Wood was pronounced dead an hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.

Lethal injection has been challenged in the courts many times, mostly without success. The biggest recent challenge for death penalty states has been obtaining lethal chemicals after major drugmakers stopped selling drugs for use in executions. That forced states to find alternative injection drugs.

Adding to the concern from opponents is the fact that the drugs are mostly purchased from loosely regulated compounding pharmacies. Arizona, Texas, Florida and Missouri don’t name the supplier and offer no details about how the drugs are tested or how executioners are trained.

Some death penalty opponents are zeroing in on midazolam, a sedative commonly used to treat people with seizures. It was first used in an execution in October in Florida.

This year, three of the 10 U.S. executions using the drug have gone wrong. After Wednesday’s execution, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer ordered a review of the state’s execution protocol. Wood’s lawyer demanded an independent investigation.

Governors in Ohio and Oklahoma ordered similar reviews after the problematic executions in those states earlier this year.

Texas plans no changes based on what happened in Arizona, corrections spokesman Jason Clark said, noting that Texas uses a different drug, pentobarbital.

Ohio corrections department spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said the state is “always evaluating our policies to ensure executions in Ohio are carried out in a humane and lawful manner.