A death row inmate who was found guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend has been executed, and his last words “angered” the victim’s family in his final moments…
Killer Joseph Woods suffered for 2 hours before succumbing to the lethal injection…
But what he had to say just before his death caused quite the stir.
Scroll down for the full story…
Now, although abolished in many countries, the death penalty is still retained in some parts of the world.
These countries include China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and of course, the United States of America.
The death penalty has been a part of the US justice system for centuries…
And the penalty, which is often referred to as capital punishment, has been in action since approximately 1608… Yep, it’s really that old.
But it’s not currently legal in every state.
And as the years have gone on, it’s become more and more of a controversial and taboo subject.
Many U.S states have now abolished the death penalty for a number of reasons…
Including the risk factors of executing an innocent person, the fact it doesn’t prevent future crimes, and the fact that it is both discriminatory and can be used politically, as per Amnesty.
Organizations, such as Amnesty, have been fighting for decades to have the death penalty abolished entirely. They have been trying to expose and hold to account governments that continue to use the punishment.
Many find the death penalty totally barbaric.
When questioned, it’s difficult to justify the state killing its citizens.
Campaigners argued that many of those executed over the last few years were killed despite suffering from serious mental and physical illnesses…
Which should have rendered the death penalty an unconstitutional punishment.
And some states have made huge progress in this field.
History was made by Virginia being the first-ever southern state to abolish the death penalty. Other states which have abolished capital punishment include Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, and Washington.
People were overjoyed by the news, to say the least…
And many are even calling for the abolishment to be nationwide.
Virginia is now the twenty-third state to abolish the death penalty.
And many are hoping for other Southern states to follow suit.
1 state that seems to be sticking with its decision to execute, however, is Alabama.
The state sentences more people to death per capita than any other state.
Now, lethal injections in have been known to go wrong.
Death-row prisoner John Evans’ execution in 1983 was one of the most horrific to go wrong. An electrode detached from his leg while he was in the electric chair, causing his body to burn. After multiple attempts to end his life, he finally died.
Death row inmate Joseph Wood was executed in a prison in Arizona in 2014.
But Woods, who was convicted of killing ex-girlfriend Debra Dietz and her father Eugene Dietz, suffered a “botched” execution.
According to the LADbible, Woods killed the pair on 7 August 1989, when he reportedly “walked into the family-owned car body store in Tuscon, Arizona and shot them.”
This came after his 29-year-old ex-partner “obtained a restraining order” against Woods after she ended their 5-year relationship due to “domestic violence.”
Police arrived at the scene, where they subsequently shot at Wood, injuring him.
But after serving twenty-five years in prison, Woods was ordered to get executed in July 2014 at Florence State Prison in Arizona.
But the execution didn’t go entirely to plan…
His final moments were then prolonged, with the lethal injection failing to work in the 10 minutes it’s supposed to.
He reportedly gasped more than 600 times, with his legal team requesting the execution be stopped.
It took approximately one hour and 57 minutes for Wood to eventually die.
Dale Baich, one of his lawyers, said at the time that “the prolonged death could have been prevented,” he even branded the execution as “cruel” and an “unusual punishment.”
But the State Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan revealed that Wood “felt no pain” during the execution.
“Throughout this execution, I conferred and collaborated with our IV team members and was assured unequivocally that the inmate was comatose and never in pain or distress,” Ryan said.
As a result of the “botched” execution, the state of Arizona temporarily halted all executions…
And resumed them in May this year.
And that’s not all, the victim’s family confessed how they felt seeing Woods die…
Talking to Sky News, the Dietz family said that what they saw was incomparable to the pain that their family members had faced at the hands of Woods.
Debbie’s sister, Jeanne Brown, said that what she saw was “nothing compared to what happened on August 7, 1989.”
“What’s excruciating is seeing your father lying there in a pool of blood, seeing your sister lying in a pool of blood,” she added.
Debbie’s brother-in-law, Richard Brown, said that he “saw the life” go out of his sister-in-law’s eyes.
He also spoke about Woods’ execution…
“This man, he conducted a horrifying murder, and you worry about the drug and how it affects him. Why don’t we give him a bullet? Why don’t we give him some Drano? Now my family can rest in peace,” he said.
And even added that the execution drugs used are “all out of proportion.”
However, it was the killer’s last words that aggravated the victim’s family before he died…
“I take comfort knowing today my pain stops, and I said a prayer that on this or any other day you may find peace in all of your hearts, and may God forgive you all,” Woods reportedly said.
Before he succumbed to death.