The decision by the Arizona Department of Corrections to abandon the drug, a sedative known as midazolam, came in a settlement agreement as part of a lawsuit over the state’s execution drugs and procedures. The agreement, filed in federal court on Monday, settles only a portion of the case, which was brought against the state by seven death-row inmates.
Midazolam was one of two drugs given to Joseph R. Wood III in July 2014 in Arizona’s death chamber in Florence. Mr. Wood, convicted in the murders of his girlfriend and her father in 1989, was injected with 15 times the standard dose of midazolam and a painkiller during a procedure that lasted one hour 57 minutes. Some witnesses described Mr. Wood gasping more than 600 times. The unusual length of a procedure that typically takes about 15 minutes prompted the Arizona attorney general to temporarily halt executions in the state. The hiatus remains in effect under a court order.
“The state’s decision to never again use midazolam is a sensible one,” said Dale A. Baich, an assistant federal public defender who represented Mr. Wood and is one of the lawyers for the inmates suing the state. “Scientific evidence shows that this class of drugs is not an appropriate drug for use in lethal injection executions. Time after time, midazolam has failed to keep condemned prisoners adequately anesthetized and to bring about a quick, humane death.”
The drug remains involved in other legal battles around the country.
