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A CONVICTED MURDERER “gasped for an hour” in a botched execution in the US state of Arizona overnight.
Joseph Wood’s prolonged death comes just months after another inmate suffered an excruciating attempted execution in Oklahoma.
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s office said Joseph Rudolph Wood was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m., one hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.
Wood’s lawyers had filed emergency appeals with federal and state courts while the execution was underway, demanding that it be stopped.
The appeal said Wood was “gasping and snorting for more than an hour.”
The state’s Governor Jan Brewer said afterwards that she is ordering a review of the state’s execution process. An Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution said that Wood began gasping as a sedative and pain killer were injected into his bloodstream. He was checked six times over the next two hours, but continued to gasp.
State Director of the Department of Corrections Charles Ryan said that Wood was comatose and was never in any pain. However, Wood’s lawyer Dale Baich called it a botched execution that should have taken 10 minutes.
The family of Wood’s victim said they had no problems with the execution.
“This man conducted a horrifying murder and you guys are going, ‘let’s worry about the drugs,’” said Richard Brown, the brother-in-law of Debbie Dietz, who was 29 when she was killed in 1989.
Why didn’t they give him a bullet? Why didn’t we give him Drano?
Wood was convicted of fatally shooting Dietz and her father, 55-year-old Gene Dietz, at their auto repair shop in Tucson.
Wood had angered the family by smiling at them as he delivered his last words, saying that he hoped they “find peace in your hearts”.
The Arizona case is the third such case this year, with Arizona using the same type of drugs as Ohio, where an inmate gasped for half an hour as he died.
A different mixture was used in the Oklahoma case.
Wood became the third person executed by Arizona since October, the 36th since 1992.
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Smiling while delivering his last words to the families of the victims……how evil can a man be.
Wonder how his victims died !.
Wood and his 29-year-old ex-girlfriend, Debbie Dietz, had been involved in a turbulent relationship for 5 years, which had been marred by numerous breakups and several domestic violent incidents. Debbie was working at a local body shop owned by her family.
On August 7, 1989, Wood walked into the shop and shot Gene Dietz, age 55, in the chest with a .38 caliber revolver, killing him. Gene Dietz’s 70-year-old brother was present and tried to stop Wood, but Wood pushed him away and proceeded into another section of the body shop.
Wood went up to Debbie, placed her in some type of hold, and shot her once in the abdomen and once in the chest, killing her.
Why dont they just use a firing squad.
Cos it’s not 1760.
Plus statistically its less successful than lethal injection. Unless you shoot from point blank range either from the back directly into the heart or into the head.
But you can reload, and anyway it’s a squad so surely 5 fella’s shooting should be enough.
“Statistically its less successful”
Has anyone actually survived a properly constituted ‘modern’ firing squad??
China just uses a close range shot to the back of the head. Thats effective. The old fashioned firing squad even though there is a number of members is not as successful. Generally there was only one live round which would not be known by the members of the firing squad. Even with all members having live rounds the success rate isn’t as high as the lethal injection. Personally I think leaving someone like that rot in prison until they die is probably a worse fate. But do it in solitary confinement. But Im not against the death penalty either. Maybe the botched lethal injection is the way to go for some of these individuals ?
Getting caught in the gears of a combine- that’s the way i wanna go.
Yes. Then had to either get stood back up and had it done again or have a bullet put into the head. Im not saying not to use it. Im just saying it doesn’t kill outright first time every time. Plus its still probably to quick and easy for some.
‘A lawyer said’ so I don’t believe it
I dunno let’s try.. Who would be first, enda kenny , or Garth brooks???
Because “lethal injection is the most humane way to die”.
Having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, that’s the way I wanna go…
A gun could do the job. The prisoner could get tranquilisers and painkillers before the execution. It could be a firing mechanism that is operated from a booth nearby and could deliver a shot to the heart or brain. A shot to the brain could incapacitate even if death was not instantaneaous but took nearly a minute.
The Nazis switched to gas from firing squads, not just for cost reasons, but because shooting somebody can be a very traumatic experience for the shooter. Even with conscience assuaging devices such as blank rounds in some of the weapons, it’s still a very difficult thing for a person to do.
Paul, I thought that traditionally there was one blank round, not one live round. In other words the victim was hit by multiple bullets but each member of the firing squad could feel that he as an individual may not have been responsible for the death.
Think you’re high up on the list Elaine… Any sign of a new profile pic soon you big eeegit
Lamb….you have put thought into that. But, someone still has to press the button. Thats a problem with firing squads. Not everyone wants to be responsible for taking someones life.
Avina…thats the achilles heal of the firing squad. Not everyone wants to be responsible for shooting someone. Maybe get convicted murders in the prison system to do it ?
That’s a given Paul. My point was that its not a single live round and multiple blanks, as you stated in your earlier post.
Could hand him over too the Israelis, now they are good at killing.
I believe it’s only one of the guns I’m a firing squad which has live ammo, so the executioner doesn’t know who performed the execution, but don’t quote me on that!!
Have to say, this is one story that’s not gonna keep me awake tonight.
It should because it was cruel and inhumane
You say cruel and inhumane, I say justice.
You say justice, but it’s more like revenge and makes it no better than the murder. Who’s going to execute the executioners?
What makes it different from the murders is that the victims were innocent, the murderer is not and knew what the penalty could be if he was caught. Opinion was, is and always will be divided on the issue and understandably so, I can see both sides of the argument, I just happen to believe that on balance, some murderers should get the death penalty. That is if their guilt has been proven beyond all doubt of course. I also believe that rapists and paedophiles should be chemically castrated so their impulse to reoffend on their release is drastically reduced. With a man as callous as this, how can you reduce the risk of reoffence if he was to be released after 20/30 years? You can’t, and another innocent person could get killed.
Gerry Conlon was proved guilty beyond doubt and would have been executed if the vengeful barbarism of capital punishment had been available to the judge.
Amy you have a touching belief in the American “justice” system. What about those who have been wrongly convicted?
Proof is very different to a large quantity of evidence. Proved means that there was DNA, CCTV etc which is absolute and undeniable.
Boganity, how was it cruel and inhumane when he didn’t experience any pain?
“Department of Corrections Charles Ryan said that Wood was comatose and was never in any pain.”
Shot for the c… !
Boganity, was the way he murdered two people humane then?
And was that the case in this case?
Yes, the victims brother was also present and tried to stop him, the police then caught him red handed as he tried to flee.
Amy you do reasonable that the burden of proof is “beyond all reasonable doubt” in all cases? And yet sometimes, an innocent person is convicted despite this. There is always this possibility. But if the death penalty applies, they are killed.
*realise
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
Pity it didn’t take longer and be shown to the world that this is the consequence of cold blooded murder…
End of argument.
He wouldn’t have been in that position if he didn’t take someone else’s live.
My heart bleeds
Maybe it’s dysfunctional.
Me cousin had the same thing. Think it’s called a murmur or something.
Cardiac haemorrhage
Could be a tumor.
Does it happen regularly or is it a monthly kind of a thing?
Karma
Karma? Ah yeah, that thing stupid people believe in :-D
That’s nothing compared to the time his victims family’s have suffered,
Hope your burning in hell now,
This will not help them. More likely it will worsen their suffering.
And what if the person who is executed also has a loving family? That didn’t arise in this case but did in the case Dennis McGuire whose daughter attended his execution and left devastated because her father was subjected to a botched execution: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/people-should-be-ashamed-family-speaks-out-on-ohios-25minute-experimental-execution-for-convicted-murderer-and-rapist-9068569.html
If, by your logic, the family of McGuire’s victims have suffered greatly and so they deserve vengeance/justice, then so too has McGuire’s daughter suffered and therefore also deserves vengeance/justice against the state.
In other words, your argument is completely hypocritical.
Relishing in the death of a man is as evil as the crimes he may have committed, it makes you look as blood thirsty as the criminal killer.
The death penalty is barbaric and only serves as an act of revenge
No it works as a deterrent too, an ultimate one for him and a useful one for other would be murderers! It’s also useful in stopping repeat offenders!
I’d rather know that I will never again see the man who murdered my sister and father then to hear he is it after 20..
Absolute nonsense. If it was a deterrent then there would be no one on death row. Shane Hickey absolutely right. Wallowing like a pig in celebration at the death of anyone merely brings them down to the level of the criminal.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
Oh a deterrent? So it appears that there are no murderers in America anymore because they’ve been deterred?
Countries with the death penalty statically have also higher crime rates. It doesn’t work.
The comments on this story prove that what people really crave of the justice system is a kind of revenge service. “eye for an eye” is a base instinct and has no place at the heart of the system of justice. Besides which, it doesn’t even work:
“The fruit of my experience has this bitter after-taste: that I do not now believe that any of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in any way acted as a deterrent against future murder. Capital punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge.”
– Albert Pierrepoint, last executioner of both the UK and Ireland.
How long did is victim take?
I don’t see what the problem is…..
1 in 25 people executed in the US are innocent, Black people are 3.9 times more likely to be given the death penalty then white people for the same severity of crime, there’s considerable racial bias in jury deliberations and there is no evidence that it reduces crime.
References:
Gross, S.R., O’Brien, B., Hu, C. & Kennedy, E.H. 2014. Rate of false conviction of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201306417, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1306417111.
“Death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dies-who-decides#Executive Summary”
Lynch, M. & Haney, C. 2000. Discrimination and instructional comprehension: Guided discretion, racial bias, and the death penalty. Law and Human Behavior, 24, 337.
John, D. & J, W.J. 2006. The Death Penalty: No Evidence for Deterrence. The Economists’ Voice, 3, 1–6.
Why do they not just put a bullet in their heads game over!!
If a State is going to execute someone then it must do it humanely! From what I have read this execution was barbaric and in the case the state in this case acted more like a murderer.
Surely they can devise a system that is less barbaric!
They have, it’s called prison. Death penalty of any kind is barbaric, this one just happened to be inhumane too.
This is meant to be the most humane way to kill a person
They have tried the others
Shooting
Hanging
Gas Chamber
Electric Chair
(Guillotine in France)
I think this comes down to money
Probably using cheaper drugs in order to save money and they just have not got it quite right yet
The problem is that one of the main drugs was manufactured only in the EU and manufacture has ceased. They are trying new cheap substitutes because of the lack of the EU manufactured drug.
Well he wont be murdering anyone else, good riddance
He hadn’t murdered anybody since 1989 because he was in prison. i.e. a life sentence did the exact same thing.
@ Ignoreland – so why should the taxpayer be forced to pay for his stay in prison?
I don’t totally agree with the death penalty unless there’s irrefutable proof but seriously, why should taxpayers pay for him?
Life in prison is actually far cheaper than executing somebody: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty
Doubt that
I’m after posting you evidence that says it is. How about you read it? It’s due to the legal costs that arise from trying to legally kill somebody.
Barbaric and inhumane.
This is by far and away the worst article I’ve read on this botched execution. Focusing on distracting details like the prisoner smiling at the witnesses instead of focusing on the key issue: that the botched execution of a person in the USA took almost 2 hours as a result of untested drugs. Provoking a reaction in the comments by using cheap tabloid tricks is apparently more interesting for The Journal.
Oh my God, this man murdered someone! We must demand his murder in order to show society that murder is wrong!
This soft hearted approach to ensuring justice is done for the victims families is sickening. I would fully support the introduction of a death penalty here. If someone murdered a member of my family, I would be100% committed to seeing them pay with their life too. If the state can do that then that’s the perfect sentence for the act committed. If the state can’t do that, the person responsible would be praying we had a soft death penalty like an lethal injection when I get hold of them.
Killing is bad unless mandated by the state
Capital punishment is obscene and should be totally abolished.
All I can say is oh my god. The other day I vowed to not comment any more on articles relating to the Gaza conflict because the comments section was filled with vile evil, nasty personal attacks towards other posters and humanity crushing demands for blood blood blood to be spilt. Again this article has brought the disgusting nasty out in the comments section, I cannot believe what I am reading … it sounds like Ireland is a nation of blood thirsty rabid wolves whose only interest is tearing each other apart limb from limb in as painful and prolonged a fashion as possible. I am truly sickened by what I’m reading, I don’t know what’s happened to thejournal comments section recently, it just gets nastier and nastier. I would add that it might help if thejournal actually enforced their own policy when it comes to people mounting personal attacks and insults towards each other, the comments section is riddled with it and nothing is done. The comments on this article has made the decision for me, I am uninstalling thejournal app from my phone and won’t be back. Adios folks, enjoy.
Bye now
What humanity did he show his victims? Even the Bible teaches an eye for an eye.
The bible also teaches you to stone women for adultery, not to eat shellfish, and not to wear two different kinds of material simultaneously.
Ah the Bible, such a great source of morality!
The eye for an eye law in the bible is a limitation not a permission.
The bible was supposed to be a guideline to life until the Catholic Church put there own spin on it, that rolling stone gathered many stories along the way..
Rather bizarre comment Elaine. What spin did the catholic church put on the bible?
Gwen,
The Bible in the Old Testament, in the core tenets of that book (The Ten Commandments) teach “Thou Shalt Not Kill”
It doesn’t say “Thou Shalt Not Kill, unless the person you’re killing, has already killed in which case, imprison him for 25 years, then put him to death with an untested mixture of chemicals being pumped into his body with people watching for two hours”.
Additionally Jesus said at the sermon on the mount to “Turn the other cheek”.
Apart from the fact that the Bible isn’t really a good basis for modern laws/discussion on the death penalty, if you wanna use it. I’d go by the two more authoritative comments, one from God directly, the other from his son, rather than a passage in Exodus.
But to be honest, I’m not religious and I can think of thousands of non-religious based reasons to dislike the death penalty. But using the Bible to justify taking a life is pretty objectionable to me.
Deter not prevent..the penalty must always outweigh the action otherwise the there is no fear of the penalty
We’ve known now for 40 years that the death penalty has no deterring factor: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1228227?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104381789717
So
The way I see it , if U take a life then your life should be taken also.
Very simple.
There is too much wrong with Ireland justice system !!
I would agree for the death penalty to be brought back.
Too many ppl now a day have no respect cos ireland is too soft with there justice system.
If we had the death penalty then maybe we would have a lower murder rate than America…oh, we do.
“The way I see it , if U take a life then your life should be taken also.
Very simple.”
Very simple. Says it all really.
I agree Robert maby not death penalty but the inmates should be put to hard labour and not given the luxuries they have in prison..
When you confuse Justice with revenge, then you better dig two graves.
I watched a programme (or maybe I read a book), where families of victims of awful crimes attended the execution of the murderer.
They had spent years hating this person and living their entire lived around getting “justice” for their loved ones.
I am not sure of the %, but after the executions – many became depressed, suicidal and none felt better, despite the euphoria directly after the event.
Suddenly they had no-one to hate, no court cases..
The biggest crime to me when a murderer takes a life – is the lives that he takes with it, sure their families are not dead – they’re worse than that – they’re the living dead.
After the execution there are no more news networks at their door, no more groups or politicians looking for glory and national exposure.
They are on their own trying to deal with the grief that never went away, it was merely pushed aside as the execution was a distraction.
Sad really.
hope they had popcorn two hours is a long show
Why don’t they use that mix all the time if he murdered someone
If I had broken into that man’s cell on death row an hour before he was due to be executed and killed him, it would have been murder. However, when he’s put to death by the state, it’s justice. Surely it’s not only me that this strikes as utterly bizarre!
Ah well was is it really botched after all he is dead
I’m delighted for him! ;)
You’re delighted a man suffered before he died…says a lot about you.
I can’t do this again already its too soon. However I absolutely fail to see how the journal can allow open comments on these threads which call for vile, barbaric vengeful torture and murder while we weren’t allowed to comment on the biting non-incident from the Dublin match. I’ve seen threads closed on here over far less but this kind of stuff is constantly allowed. Hell in the article of this type one of the only people saying that we shouldn’t murder and torture criminals had all their comments deleted
I like it….Americans do it best
Let the pig have a slow agonising death he deserves..
At least the family got justice, If he was from Ireland he would of been out walking around enjoying life in 4 to 8 years!
He deserved to die, he’s dead now, so get over it.
I’m devastated. No one should cause the death and suffering of another human being. Oh wait…
Cue the “what if he was innocent?”, and the “death penalty is barbaric” brigade
Absolutely disgusting no matter what he has -or not- done.RIP.
Shame he didn’t suffer and squirm a tad longer, good riddance to that maggot!
How bad!!
R we sop posed to feel sorry for this Guy, shame he went so fast,
feck the drugs .just shoot them easier less bull
Trouble is we cannot make absolute decisions based on a flawed system. And every man made system will be flawed by the virtue that it is man made. There needs to be the option adjust for error and the finality of death makes this impossible.
Ciaran, I have often wondered this too, but I think that in some cases, where the is the real possibility of legal proceedings, an ongoing Garda Investigation or if there is an ongoing court case, then the Journal and other media have to be careful on what they report and on what they allow other people to comment on.
Leaving comments open in some cases, could expose the Journal to legal proceedings from the person they are writing about.
The journal cannot allow users to make accusations or defame a persons good name – they would be liable for this.
Bring back the guillotine ! Low cost and fairly instant
Good enough.. :)
No “Botched” Execution – Arizona (or Ohio)
Dudley Sharp
“In 1989, (Wood) hunted down and shot to death his former girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene Dietz.” (1)
“Debra Dietz’s sister, Jeanne Brown, who was at the execution, said, ‘Everybody here said (the execution) was excruciating. You don’t know what excruciating is. Seeing your dad lying there in a pool of blood, seeing your sister lying there in a pool of blood, that’s excruciating.’ ” (1)
“No one who witnessed the execution has said Wood ever woke up. It simply took a long time for him to die.” (1)
“(Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan) said IV lines in the inmate’s arms were “perfectly placed” and insisted that Wood felt no pain. ” (2)
He is correct (3), there could have been no pain, only sedation, sleep, coma and death (with apnea, shortness of breath, weezing, other noises, etc. common).
“Anesthesiology experts say they’re not surprised that the combination of drugs took so long to kill Wood.” (2)
“This doesn’t actually sound like a botched execution. This actually sounds like a typical scenario if you used that drug combination,” said Karen Sibert, an anesthesiologist and associate professor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Sibert was speaking on behalf of the California Society of Anesthesiologists.” (2)
“Dr. Zivot said that midazolam acts ‘like a key in a lock,’ attaching to a receptor in the body and causing sedation. Once the receptor is saturated, he said, ‘it doesn’t matter if you give the person 500 additional doses or five million doses. It won’t have any more effect.’ ” (4)
“The documents showed that Mr. Ryan personally directed the execution team to use the additional (14) doses. In his statement, Mr. Ryan said the doses ensured that ‘(Wood) remained deeply sedated throughout the process, and did not endure pain.” ” (4).
For an equally peaceful death, but a quicker one, use pentobarbital or nitrogen gas.
“ ‘(Wood’s) sedation level was continually monitored and verified by the IV team,’ Mr. Ryan said. The intravenous team included a doctor, he said.” (4)
Wood’s breathing, weezing and/or gasping is a product of respiratory distress, as expected.
That is easy for anyone to determine/
1) Interview neutral, competent anesthesiologists.
2) Review the pharmacological characteristics of the drugs and their overdosing symptoms.
Very basic. Very easy, just as with the Ohio execution of Dennis McGuire (5), another case where folks jumped to the wrong conclusions.
DRUG MANUFACTURERS ETHICS
For alleged ethical reasons, companies have denied execution jurisdictions the use of the preferred drugs sodium thiopental and pancuronium bromide in the execution of guilty murderers, even though those same companies still approve them for euthanasia for innocent humans and animals.
1) Execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood was NOT botched, EJ Montini, columnist, azcentral.com, 7/24/2014
2) “Transcript shows concerns during Arizona execution”, Associated Press, Washington Post, July 25, 2014
3) Autopsy doctor finds nothing out of the ordinary in inmate’s execution, Gary Grado Arizona Capital Times, July 25, 2014.
4) “Executed Arizona Inmate Got 15 Times Standard Dose, Lawyers Say”, Fernanda Santos, New York Times, AUG. 1, 2014
5) The (Imagined) Horror of Dennis McGuire’s Execution
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-imagined-horror-of-dennis-mcguires.html
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