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Judge rejects Arizona prisoner’s bid to delay execution

Frank Atwood
Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry via AP
This undated file photo provided by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry shows Frank Atwood, who was sentenced to death in the 1984 killing of 8-year-old Vicki Hoskinson in Pima County, Ariz. A federal judge has denied Atwood's bid to delay his execution, according to the ruling posted Sunday, June 5, 2022.

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.