Death row inmate 'gasps and snorts' during TWO-HOUR execution

GASPING: Joseph Wood snorted for more than an hour after given a lethal injection [AP/GETTY]

Killer Joseph Wood was executed in Arizona last night but his prolonged death saw him "gasping and snorting" for 90 minutes before he was finally pronounced dead.
The 55-year-old was injected with a sedative and pain killer and witnesses said he began gasping shortly after.
He gasped more than 600 times over the next hour and a half, his jaw dropping during that time – while his chest expanded and contracted.
Wood's lawyer wrote in a legal filing demanding that the courts stop the execution: "He has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour.
"He is still alive."
Wood was finally pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m. – one hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.
State Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan insisted Wood felt "no pain" during the execution, which should have taken 10 minutes.
He said: "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.
However, defence lawyer Dale Baic called it a "bungled execution", accusing the state of Arizona of being responsible for "an wntirely preventable horror".
The lengthy death is the third prolonged execution this year in America – including one in Ohio in which an inmate gasped in similar fashion for nearly 30 minutes.
Another inmate died of a heart attack in April, minutes after prison officials halted his execution because the drugs weren't being administered properly.

FINAL JOURNEY: Wood died at the Arizona state prison [AP] 

Wood was sentenced to death after killing Debbie Dietz and her father Gene in their car repair shop in Tuscon in 1989.
Debbie Dietz tried to end her relationship with Wood and got an order of protection against him.
On the day of the shooting, Wood went to the auto shop and waited for Gene Dietz, who disapproved of his daughter's relationship with Wood, to get off the phone.
Once the father hung up, Wood pulled out a revolver, shot him in the chest and then smiled.
Debbie Dietz pleaded with Wood to spare her life but an employee heard Wood say: "I told you I was going to do it. I have to kill you."
He then swore at her before shooting her twice in the chest.
Family members of Wood's victims said they had no problems with the way the execution was carried out.
Wood's final words were: "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."