Experts: Arizona executioners took too long to insert IV

By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — The first execution in Arizona in nearly eight years was carried out more smoothly than the state’s last use of the death penalty, when a condemned prisoner who was given 15 doses of a two-drug combination gasped for air hundreds of times over nearly two hours. But death penalty experts say Wednesday’s lethal-injection death of Clarence Dixon at the state prison in Florence took too long to carry out, as medical staff spent about 25 minutes to insert an IV. Similar problems have occurred before, leading lethal injection executions to be called off.