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| Arizona inmate executed despite appeals |
| By kingmandailyminer.com |
| Published: 07/20/2011 |
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FLORENCE (AP) - A death-row inmate was executed by injection Tuesday despite a flurry of last-minute appeals over a sedative used in a previous execution and a challenge over how the Arizona Department of Corrections carries out the state's death penalty. Thomas Paul West, 52, was pronounced dead at the state prison in Florence at 11:10 a.m., about four minutes after he was declared sedated. Unlike recent executions in which the inmate was covered to his neck by a sheet, a catheter in West's right arm was visible because the sheet had been pulled aside. West's lawyers had argued in a Monday court filing that the last four inmates Arizona executed did not have catheters in their arms, but rather in the femoral vein, which the lawyers described as a painful process. They said the Corrections Department violated its own protocol in those executions by using the femoral vein first and not having a backup catheter in place. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to block West's execution based on those arguments, ruling that West failed to prove there was a substantial risk that he would experience severe pain during the execution. When a curtain was pulled to reveal the execution chamber Tuesday, a calm-looking West looked directly at his lawyers, nodded twice, then pointed to an area below his waist and then back toward his catheter. He then held up two fingers in what his lawyer later said was a "peace" sign. Defense attorney Dale Baich said West was pointing to the primary catheter in his arm and a backup catheter in his femoral vein. He said although the primary catheter was in an arm, he is still concerned that the femoral vein was used at all because it's invasive and painful. He said as far as he knows, Arizona is the only state that has been using the femoral vein for executions. When Warden Carson McWilliams asked if West had any last words, West ignored him, lying still on the table with his eyes closed. He breathed heavily when the sedative began and then appeared to fall asleep as about two dozen witnesses watched. Prison officials said he declined to request a last meal. West's execution came 24 years after he beat Donald Bortle to death while robbing his home just outside Tucson. Bortle's decomposing body was found in a closet on July 17, 1987, covered in blood with his hands tied behind his back. Read More. |
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