PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has denied an Arizona prisoner’s bid to delay his execution in the 1984 killing of an 8-year-old girl.
The ruling Saturday by U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi keeps on track Wednesday's scheduled execution of Frank Atwood, who argued the state’s death penalty procedures would violate his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment by subjecting him to unimaginable pain.
His lawyers said Atwood, who has a degenerative spinal condition that has left him in a wheelchair would undergo excruciating suffering if he were strapped to a gurney while lying on his back during his lethal injection execution.
Atwood was convicted of murder in the 1984 killing of 8-year-old Vicki Hoskinson.
Authorities have said Atwood kidnapped Hoskinson, whose remains were discovered in the desert northwest of Tucson nearly seven months after her disappearance. Experts could not determine the cause of death from the remains that were found, according to court records.
Atwood maintains that he is innocent of the crimes.
Jacques Billeaud, The Associated Press
