Official: Arizona to resume executions after 5-year hiatus
Source: Associated Press
Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press Updated 6:57 pm CDT, Friday, July 26, 2019
Photo: AP
FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Arizona
Department of Corrections shows Joseph Rudolph Wood,
who was executed on July 23, 2014. Wood was given 15
doses of a two-drug combination over two hours in an
execution that his attorney said was botched. Executions
in Arizona were put on hold after Wood's July 2014 death,
but Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich says the state is
now poised to resume executions. (Arizona Department of
Corrections via AP, File)
PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona is poised to resume executions after a five-year hiatus brought on by an execution that critics said was botched, a subsequent lawsuit challenging the way the state carries out the death penalty, and the difficulty of finding lethal injection drugs, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said.
Brnovich said in a letter Friday to Gov. Doug Ducey that the now-resolved lawsuit removed legal barriers to carrying out executions. He also said a recent U.S. Justice Department opinion clears the way for states to import pentobarbital.
"Justice must be done for the victims of these heinous crimes and their families. Those who commit the ultimate crime deserve the ultimate punishment," Brnovich said in the letter. He asked the governor for help in obtaining pentobarbital.
It's unknown when the next execution will be scheduled. Fourteen of the 116 inmates on death row in Arizona have exhausted all appeals of their sentences.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Official-Arizona-to-resume-executions-after-14189205.php
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