Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Thursday called Wednesday’s botched execution in Arizona “torture.”
“I believe in the death penalty for certain crimes. But that is not an acceptable way of carrying it out. And people who were responsible should be held responsible,” he told Politico. “The lethal injection needs to be an indeed lethal injection and not the bollocks-upped situation that just prevailed. That’s torture.”
McCain was tortured for years in North Vietnam as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.
Convicted killer Joseph Rudolph Wood III was “gasping and snorting” for over an hour after receiving a lethal injection. It should have taken about 10 minutes, but Wood lay dying for nearly two hours.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) ordered a review of the execution, but said that Wood “did not suffer.”
“This is in stark comparison to the gruesome, vicious suffering that he inflicted on his two victims, and the lifetime of suffering he has caused their family,” she said.
McCain told Politico that he does not intend to speak with Brewer about the execution.
“It’s a state issue,” he said. “The decision is made by the state legislature and the governor.”
The botched execution in Arizona followed two similar instances with lethal injections this year in Ohio and Oklahoma.
