Death Penalty Drugs Update 2016: Arizona Bans Controversial Sedative After Botched Execution

Arizona will no longer use a controversial drug for death penalty executions, BuzzFeed reported Tuesday. The controversial sedative midazolam, similar to valium, is administered during executions for many death penalty cases across the U.S. However, following a botched execution in 2014, the Arizona Department of Corrections decided to discontinue use of the drug, resulting in a hiatus of inmate executions for the time being.

Midazolam came under fire after the Joseph Wood's prolonged execution, which lasted two hours. During the execution, witnesses said Wood spent his final hours gasping and heaving, and he appeared to be in pain. At one point, Wood’s attorneys requested an emergency hearing with the judge in hopes to call off the execution, but Wood died before a decision could be reached. The length of the execution resulted in Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer ordering the department to review the case and the use of midazolam.

A joint stipulation filed by Arizona officials Monday said the Department of Corrections will “never again use midazolam, or any other benzodiazepine, as part of a drug protocol in a lethal injection execution.”

The “state’s decision to never again use midazolam is a sensible one,” Dale Baich, a federal public defender, said in a statement to BuzzFeed.

“Scientific evidence shows that this class of drugs is not an appropriate drug for use in lethal injection executions. Time after time, midazolam has failed to keep condemned prisoners adequately anesthetized and to bring about a quick, humane death. The bungled execution of Ron Smith in Alabama on December 8 is just the latest example,” Baich said.

The Supreme Court reviewed midazolam back in June 2015 and ruled the sedative didn’t violate the U.S. Constitution’s dismissal of cruel and unusual punishment, allowing states to continue experimenting with the drug during death penalty executions. However, following the early December death of Smith, who reportedly coughed and heaved for 13 minutes before he finally died, death-row attorneys have been pushing for a ban of midazolam in Alabama.

Midazolam was initially used to induce unconsciousness before inmates were administered a drug that causes paralysis, followed by another drug that stops the heart. The final two drugs cause side effects that can feel like fire running through the veins. Medical experts and opponents of midazolam have claimed the sedative isn’t strong enough to ease the pain inmates may feel during the final two stages of the execution process.