(Florence) An Arizona man convicted of murdering an 8-year-old girl in 1984 was put to death on Wednesday in the state’s second execution since authorities resumed carrying out the death penalty in May after a hiatus of nearly eight years.
Posted at 3:23 p.m.
Frank Atwood, 66, died by lethal injection at Florence State Prison for his conviction in the murder of Vicki Lynne Hoskinson, whose body was found in the desert, the Arizona attorney general said, Mark Brnovich, in a statement.
Vicki Lynne disappeared months earlier after leaving her home in Tucson to drop a birthday card in a nearby mailbox.
The United States Supreme Court cleared the way for Atwood’s execution on Wednesday morning after rejecting a final appeal by his attorneys. He died at 10:16 a.m., Mr. Brnovich said.
Atwood was the second Arizona prisoner to be put to death in less than a month. The execution of Clarence Dixon last month ended a halt to executions in Arizona, blamed on the difficulty of obtaining lethal injection drugs and criticism that a 2014 execution in the state was botched.
Death penalty opponents fear Arizona could begin executing a steady stream of prisoners languishing on death row, but state officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on their execution plans. ‘execution. No further executions are scheduled so far in Arizona, which now has 111 prisoners on death row.
Atwood was accompanied through the process of preparing for the lethal injection by a priest, witnesses to the execution told a news conference. He had claimed his innocence, but did not mention the murder with his last words.
Witnesses said he thanked the priest “for coming today and leading me in faith.”
Witnesses also said the process of intravenous injections into the detainee’s body went smoothly, although medical staff were unable to locate a vein for his right arm and injected into his hand. right, at Atwood’s suggestion.
The girl’s mother, Debbie Carlson, also witnessed the execution and told reporters after Atwood’s death that “Vicki was a buoyant little girl with an infectious laugh and a smile that would melt your heart.”
In recent weeks, judges had rebuffed attempts by Atwood’s lawyers to delay the execution.
Dixon had been executed on May 11 for his conviction for the 1978 murder of Deana Bowdoin, a 21-year-old student at Arizona State University.
His execution was criticized by experts because it took authorities around 30 minutes to inject the deadly drug into his body intravenously and 10 minutes after that before the inmate died.
They said executions are expected to take seven to 10 minutes from the start of the intravenous insertion process until the prisoner is pronounced dead.
Dixon’s execution was the first to take place in the state since the July 2014 execution of Joseph Wood, who received 15 doses of a combination of two drugs over nearly two hours.
Wood repeatedly sniffled and gasped before he died. His lawyer said the execution was botched.