Arizona: Wood execution not botched, but drug cocktail to change

• Corrections department says July 23 execution of Joseph Wood by lethal injection %22was not botched.%22
• Wood%2C 55%2C was sentenced to death for killing two people in Tucson in 1989.
• Corrections Director Charles Ryan hopes to alter the drug protocol for future executions.

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."

MONTINI: Execution not botched? Yeah, well, the review was.

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.