On August 1, the Arizona Department of Corrections (DOC) released 330 pages of documents related to the execution of Joseph Wood on July 23. Although not a report on why the execution took nearly 2 hours to complete, the documents reveal that Wood was injected with 15 consecutive doses (50 mg each) of midazolam and hydromorphone, far more than indicated in the state’s protocol. Dale Baich, an attorney for Wood, said, “The Arizona execution protocol explicitly states that a prisoner will be executed using 50 milligrams of hydromorphone and 50 milligrams of midazolam. The execution logs released today by the Arizona Department of Corrections show that the experimental drug protocol did not work as promised.” Prison officials had estimated that the drugs would take about 10 minutes to kill Wood. Charles Ryan, director of the DOC, responded to calls for an independent investigation of the execution, saying, “I am committed to a thorough, transparent and comprehensive review process. This will be an authoritative review to ensure that fact-based conclusions are reached regarding every aspect of this procedure, including the length of time it took for the execution to be lawfully completed.”

(F. Santos, “Executed Arizona Inmate Got 15 Times Standard Dose, Lawyers Say,” New York Times, August 1, 2014). Read the state Execution Log. See Lethal Injection.

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