Dale Baich, an attorney representing Joseph Wood, issued the following statement last night:
"The Governor of Arizona and the Attorney General have tonight already pronounced that Mr. Wood did not suffer during his two hour execution, during which time the witness from the Arizona Republic counted over 650 gasps for air, and that his execution was lawful. The fact is that Mr. Wood's conviction and sentence were found to be lawful by the courts, but his execution violated this country's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Because the Governor and the highest law enforcement official in Arizona have already expressed their view that Mr. Wood did not suffer, and because the state of Arizona fought tooth and nail to protect the extreme secrecy surrounding its lethal injection drugs and execution personnel, the only way to begin to remedy this is with open government and transparency. An independent investigation, led by someone outside of the Department of Corrections and outside of the executive branch of state government, must fully explore the practices which led to tonight's horrifically botched execution."
The Emergency Motion for Stay of Execution filed with the Arizona Supreme Court during the execution is available via Scribd.
Earlier coverage of Arizona's botched execution begins with the preceding post.
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