Executions Resume, With New Drugs, in Arizona

More than a year after a botched 2014 execution, the Arizona Department of Corrections has issued new guidelines that eliminate a controversial drug combination from the lethal-injection protocol, allow witnesses to see the preparation leading up to an execution, and give defense attorneys access to a cellphone in case of an emergency.

 

During the July 2014 execution of murderer Joseph Rudolph Wood, who gasped for nearly two hours and was subjected to 15 doses of the death cocktail before dying, his attorneys had to leave the death chamber to find phones in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the proceedings.

 

The new protocol was released late Friday as part of a stipulated agreement by the state with the Federal Public Defender's Office and a media coalition who filed suit in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. The suit sought more transparency in the way capital punishment is carried out.

 

"The parties agreed to this process last November, and this is just a next step in the ongoing federal litigation," said Dale Baich of the Federal Public Defender's Office.

 

Corrections officials declined to comment.