What exactly happened here?
On Wednesday afternoon in Arizona state prison, death row prisoner Joseph Wood was administered a lethal injection. He survived for 1 hour and 58 minutes before dying. Onlookers described Wood as struggling for air for an hour, and one journalist on the scene reported him as .
What were the drugs used?
Wood鈥檚 injection consisted of a two-drug cocktail of midazolam, a sedative and anaesthetic, and hydromorphone, a painkiller.
There have been several cases in the last year using midazolam, a non-standard lethal injection drug, and all have been botched. It is approved for use in Ohio, Florida, Oklahoma and Arizona, but, says anaesthesiologist of Harvard University, 鈥淭hey鈥檙e working with doses that are clinically absurd 鈥� we have no idea what they do.鈥�
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Has midazolam caused problems before?
On the four occasions on which it has been used, midazolam has consistently been linked to drawn-out deaths characterised by suffocation. According to Waisel, these reactions are to be expected from the particular drug combination used.
Midazolam was first used as a death penalty drug in the 2013 execution of Florida prisoner William Happ, in a three-drug cocktail. While the Florida state department reported the execution as proceeding without problems, that he 鈥渞emained conscious longer and made more body movements after losing consciousness than other people executed recently by lethal injection under the old formula鈥�.
The two-drug cocktail saw its first use in the case of . The injection caused McGuire to lurch, gasp, snort and choke until he finally died 25 minutes later.
Arizona decided to go ahead with Wood鈥檚 execution using the same cocktail. to Wood鈥檚 lawyers and the public.
Why are ineffective drugs being used?
States with the death penalty are running out of options. Over the past few years, international drug manufacturers in the European Union and elsewhere have clamped down on selling drugs to the US for use in executions. The three-drug cocktail typically used for lethal injection in the US 鈥� composed of a sedative, a paralytic agent and a third drug to stop the heart 鈥� are no longer easy to get hold of. So some states have been turning to so-called , which make non-FDA regulated custom medications for patients with allergic reactions, or novel drug cocktails such as the midazolam-hydromorphone mix.
With combinations that are being tested for the first time in the execution chamber, it鈥檚 unclear what will work. 鈥淚 do not know why they chose midazolam,鈥� says Waisel.
According to , law professor at Fordham University, New York, what is clear is that states should stop choosing it. 鈥淭he worst thing about the execution last night was that it was such a part of a bigger pattern,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been known, people have been so warned, and we have this track record now. There鈥檚 such a track record you wonder why they鈥檙e continuing to take place.鈥�
