1st execution in Arizona in nearly 8 years set for May 11

By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court issued an execution warrant for a death-row prisoner in what would be the state’s first use of the death penalty in nearly eight years. A May 11 execution date was set for Clarence Dixon, who was sentenced to death in the 1977 killing of Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin. The last time Arizona used the death penalty was in July 2014, when Joseph Wood was given 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours in an execution that his lawyers said had been botched. Dixon has 20 days to decide whether to be injected with a lethal drug or be executed by the gas chamber.