Editing Joseph Wood (section)

== Execution[edit] ==
The execution began at 1:52 p.m. MST and ended at 3:49 p.m. when Wood was pronounced dead. It involved injecting Wood with the drug cocktail, that was supposed to be lethal, 15 times, even though one was supposed to be sufficient to kill him.Wood gasped and snorted for well over an hour,<sup>[12]</sup> and a media witness compared Wood's breathing to a "fish gulping for air".<sup>[13]</sup> An Associated Press reporter said Wood gasped more than 600 times. Experts stated that the execution should have taken about ten minutes.<sup>[3]</sup>

Wood's lawyers filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court an hour into the procedure, requesting that the prolonged execution be halted. In the motion, they wrote: "He has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour. ... He is still alive." The appeal was denied by Justice Anthony Kennedy, with word coming half an hour after Wood's death.

After the execution, Debra Dietz's sister told the Associated Press: “What I saw today with him being executed, it is nothing compared to what happened on August 7, 1989,” Jeanne Brown said. “What's excruciating is seeing your father lying there in a pool of blood, seeing your sister lying in a pool of blood.”