Arizona execution lasts nearly two hours, lawyers say Joseph Wood was ...

The Arizona Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it had stayed the execution of Joseph Wood, with the stay coming shortly before he was set to die by lethal injection.

Wood was sentenced to death in 1991 for shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend Debra Dietz and her father, Eugene. His execution was set for Wednesday at 10 a.m. (local time) at the state prison in Florence, Ariz.

Attorneys for Wood had argued that he needed more information about his looming execution, including details about the drugs that would be used as well as the execution team. A panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had agreed over the weekend and the full court upheld the decision on Monday, but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the stay and denied a stay request on Tuesday evening.

The Supreme Court also denied a stay of execution on Wednesday. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy referred the stay request to the entire court and it was denied without explanation.

Shortly before the scheduled execution, the state Supreme Court said it had stayed the execution so it could consider his petition.

'We are hopeful that the Arizona Supreme Court will give the necessary time and consideration to the constitutional claims raised in Mr. Wood's petition, including review of the experimental combination of drugs to be used in the execution,' Dale Baich, an attorney for Wood, said in a statement.

Issues involving the drugs that will be used and the medical personnel who will carry out the execution have come into play already in two different executions this year.

The two-drug combination that Arizona said it will now use for executions - utilizing the drugs medazolam and hydromorphone - was first used in a January execution in Ohio that saw an inmate to choke, gasp and take nearly 25 minutes to die. Meanwhile, after an inmate grimaced and writhed during a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma, an independent autopsy found that the execution team failed to place the IV properly.

Arizona has argued that it has provided all of the necessary information regarding its execution protocols. If Wood is executed, he would be the first person put to death by the state since October 2013.

The stay is below:

Arizona Supreme Court - Wood