Arizona to change lethal injection drugs after prolonged execution

Arizona will no longer use the two-drug lethal injection cocktail it employed in July, when the execution of a convicted killer took almost two hours, the state's prison chief said on Monday.

In a letter to Gov. Jan Brewer, Arizona’s Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan said the agency will no longer use the drug combination used in the controversial July execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood. He was given 15 doses of the drugs and gasped repeatedly before taking his final breath.

Wood was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Debbie Dietz and her father, Gene Dietz, in 1989. It took nearly two hours for Wood to die during his July 23 execution, calling into question the efficacy of the drugs that were used. 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 that no protocols were broken, and that 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 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."

The state has put on hold all executions, pending the outcome of a lawsuit stemming from Wood's execution. Arizona has put 37 inmates to death since it reinstated capital punishment in 1992 and has about 120 inmates on death row.

The lawsuit was filed in June on behalf of Wood and other death-row inmates. It claims 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 letter said the department will stop using the mixture of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller. Instead, it 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 used dozens of times in executions in Texas, Georgia and Missouri but is also in short supply. Records obtained by The Associated Press show that 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 in eight executions in Florida, according to the report.

The independent investigation into Wood's execution reviewed drug combinations and other execution protocols of several states, including Ohio, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri.

The investigators compared Wood's execution to that of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma on April 29. The same sedative was used in both cases, 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 ruled Monday that Oklahoma's lethal injection protocols are constitutional, and said the state can proceed with the scheduled executions of four death row inmates early next year.

Wire services