How did Arizona execution go wrong?

For the third time this year, a state has set out to execute a convicted murderer but found itself unable to cleanly carry out the sentence. The continuing problems have raised questions about whether the nation’s current methods for carrying out capital punishment — a patchwork of drugs, dosages and needle techniques — can result in a humane death. After exhausting all of his appeals in the federal and state judicial systems, Joseph Rudolph Wood III was taken to Arizona’s death chamber on Wednesday and a lethal injection was administered at 1:57 p.m. Wood was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m., one hour and 57 minutes later, in what was one of the longest executions in U.S. history. Attorneys seeking to block executions have fought these secrecy laws, arguing that the information is needed to determine whether capital convicts would face cruel and unusual punishment. Attorneys seeking to block executions will continue to argue that inmates should be told the identity of suppliers and given other needed information, while states probably will seek to continue to protect their sources.