Arizona executes Clarence Dixon

Arizona executes Clarence Dixon for 1978 murder of Deana Bowdoin

Arizona executed Clarence Dixon at the state prison in Florence on Wednesday for the 1978 murder of 21-year-old ASU student Deana Bowdoin.

Dixon was executed at 10:30 a.m., according to Deputy Corrections Director Frank Strada.

"I do and always will proclaim my innocence — now let's do this shit," Dixon said in his last statement, according to Strada.

Troy Hayden, a media witness from Fox News, said the execution team had trouble getting IVs into Dixon, who grimaced and appeared to be in pain while this was happening.

The officers took 25 minutes to put in the IVs, Hayden said. The execution team had to insert an IV into Dixon's groin.

He appeared to lose consciousness a few minutes after the drugs were injected, Hayden said.

Dixon was the 1st man put to death by Arizona since the botched execution of Joseph Wood in 2014.

Appeals for last-minute reprieve

Dixon's attorneys made several attempts to stop or postpone the execution, maintaining he was mentally incompetent to understand why he was being executed.

But multiple courts found that while Dixon may have harbored delusions about a judicial conspiracy to kill him, he was aware of his circumstances and constitutionally eligible to be put to death.

Legal challenges from Dixon's attorneys claiming the lethal injection drugs the state planned to use were expired prompted the Department of Corrections to order the creation of a new batch of compounded pentobarbital just two days before his execution.

The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency denied requests from Dixon's attorneys for a commutation or reprieve. His attorneys asked for mercy, saying Dixon was blind, frail and in poor health and didn't represent a danger to society or anyone in the prison system. But the board denied the requests, saying Dixon had failed to show any remorse for his crimes.

The 1st execution since 2014

Arizona has not carried out an execution since the botched execution of Wood, which took nearly 2 hours to complete.

The state claims it has refined its execution protocols and is planning to use a single drug, pentobarbital, for executions, instead of the combination of drugs that were used on Wood.

Pentobarbital was used successfully by the federal government in a series of executions conducted in 2020.

Dixon’s execution marks a return to the death penalty for Arizona after a troubled history that includes the state attempting to acquire execution drugs illegally in 2015 and more recently failing to accurately determine the shelf life of the pentobarbital the state plans to use moving forward.

Because the crimes Dixon was convicted of occurred before 1992, he had the choice between death by lethal injection or the gas chamber.

The state's last gas chamber execution was Walter LaGrand in 1999, documented by witnesses as lasting 18 minutes and characterized as agonizing. LaGrand was a German national convicted in 1984 for his role in the death of Kenneth Hartsock.

Background on Deana Bowdoin

Deana Bowdoin grew up in the Valley and graduated with honors from Camelback High School.

She studied abroad while at Arizona State University and was considering a career in law, international marketing or diplomacy after taking the LSAT and the Foreign Service Officers tests.

But in the early morning on Jan. 7, 1978, she was found dead inside her apartment. Her murder remained unsolved for more than 20 years.

In 2001, DNA technology connected Clarence Dixon to Bowdoin's murder. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment hearing in January 2003, but was ultimately convicted a few years later.

Arizona's death row

According to the Arizona Attorney General's Office, there are more than 20 people on death row who have exhausted their appeals.

Frank Atwood, sentenced in Pima County in 1987 for the murder of an 8-year-old girl, Vicki Lynne Hoskinson, is scheduled to be executed June 8.

Dixon becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Arizona and the 38th overall since Arizona resumed capital punishment in 1992.

Dixon becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,546th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Arizona Republic, Staff; Rick Halperin, May 11, 2022

Arizona puts inmate Clarence Dixon to death in state's first execution in 8 years

His lawyers failed to convince the courts that the 66-year-old was mentally unfit to be executed for the killing of college student Deana Bowdoin in 1978.

An Arizona man convicted in the slaying of a college student more than 40 years ago was put to death Wednesday in the state's 1st execution since 2014.

A bid to spare the life of Clarence Dixon, 66, failed in the courts as his defense lawyers argued that it would be unconstitutional to kill Dixon because he was mentally unfit and unable to understand. His lawyers said Dixon had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, suffered from hallucinations and was blind and in frail health.

But a federal judge in Phoenix on Tuesday sided with a state court's conclusion that Dixon was competent, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute request to halt his execution.

Dixon died by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence, the Arizona Department of Corrections confirmed.

In his last statement, Dixon condemned the Arizona Supreme Court for denying his appeals, said he would always proclaim his innocence and addressed the victim in his case, Deana Bowdoin.

"Maybe I'll see you on the other side Deana. I don't know you and I don't remember you," Dixon said in his final words, according to a media representative.

It took 11 minutes for the drugs to be administered, and he was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m. local time. Another media representative said he had made a gasp upon the drugs being injected, but did not move otherwise.

In the days before Dixon's death, the method of lethal injection was questioned by his lawyers, who said that a batch of the sedative sodium pentobarbital mixed in February had expired and that its use would violate Arizona's execution rules.

State attorneys denied that the drug had gone bad, but offered to mix up a new batch and have it tested for potency.

Arizona halted its use of capital punishment in 2014 after the execution of Joseph Wood drew scrutiny when officials and witnesses said it took two hours for him to die, and he gasped and snorted for much of that period.

Source: NBC News, Staff, May 11, 2022

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Death penalty options expanded in proposed Arizona bills

PHOENIX — Arizona lawmakers advanced proposals on Feb. 19, 2026, that would expand execution options for death row inmates to include firing squads and lethal gas, amid ongoing challenges with lethal injection and concerns over carrying out capital sentences. The measures, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria, cleared a Senate committee with a party-line vote. They aim to give condemned inmates more choices while mandating firing squad executions for those convicted of murdering law enforcement officers. Senate Concurrent Resolution 1049 proposes a constitutional amendment that Arizona voters would decide in November. If approved, it would allow defendants sentenced to death to select from three methods: firing squad, lethal injection (intravenous administration of lethal substances) or lethal gas. Lethal injection would remain the default if no choice is made.

Oklahoma Ends Indefinite Death Row Solitary Confinement

Every year, thousands of prisoners in the U.S. are placed in solitary confinement, where they endure isolation, abuse, and mental suffering . This practice might soon become rarer for some inmates in Oklahoma, thanks to the efforts of activists in the state. Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oklahoma announced that the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester had ended the practice of indefinite solitary confinement for "the vast majority" of death row prisoners.

India | POCSO Court awards death penalty to UP couple for sexual exploitation of 33 children

A special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda on Friday sentenced a former Junior Engineer (JE) of the Irrigation Department and his wife to death for the sexual exploitation of 33 minor boys — some as young as three — over a decade, officials said. The POCSO court termed the crimes as “rarest of rare” and held Ram Bhawan and his wife Durgawati guilty of systematically abusing children between 2010 and 2020 and producing child sexual abuse material. Convicting the duo under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the court sentenced them to death for offences including aggravated penetrative sexual assault, using a child for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, and abetment and criminal conspiracy, they said.

Alabama provides the greatest arguments against the death penalty

I have seen three executions. I hope I never see a fourth. Capital punishment is violence. But the state does all it can to conceal that fact. The viewing areas outside the death chamber are still and silent. Bright light floods the small room where people die. The warden pronouncing the sentence speaks in clipped, measured tones, saying no more than needed. You’re expected to view the act as a bloodless execution of justice.

Sudanese Courts Sentence 2 Women to Death by Stoning for Adultery Despite International Obligations

Two Sudanese women have been sentenced to death by stoning in separate cases in Sudan, raising serious concerns about Sudan’s compliance with its international human rights obligations, particularly following its ratification of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT).

Florida | Governor DeSantis signs death warrant in 2008 murder case

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Michael L. King, setting an execution date of March 17, 2026, at 6 p.m. King was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2008 kidnapping, sexual battery and murder of Denise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old North Port mother. On January 17, 2008, Michael Lee King abducted 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee from her North Port home by forcing her into his green Chevrolet Camaro. He drove her around while she was bound, including to his cousin's house to borrow tools like a shovel. King took her to his home, where he sexually battered her, then placed her in the backseat of his car. Later that evening, he drove to a remote area, shot her in the face, and buried her nude body in a shallow grave. Her remains were discovered two days later. During the crime, multiple 9-1-1 calls were made, but communication breakdowns between emergency dispatch centers delayed the response. The case drew national attention and prompted w...

Arizona Makes Voters Decide One of the Most Horrific Aspects of Executions. It Should Stop.

Arizona State Sen. Kevin Payne has a very bad idea . Earlier this month, Payne introduced a proposal in the Arizona Senate to ask voters to amend the state constitution in order to allow the use of the firing squad as a method of execution. Payne, an ardent death penalty supporter, has been frustrated by Arizona’s inability to pick up the pace of executions. The state resumed executing people in 2022 after an eight-year pause caused by difficulties in obtaining drugs needed for lethal injection. Between then and now, it has put five people to death . It has only one execution on the docket for 2026.

Man convicted in 1986 murder set to become Florida's second execution of 2026

STARKE, Fla. (DPN) — A man convicted of stabbing and strangling a grocery store owner during a robbery nearly 40 years ago is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening, becoming the second person executed in Florida this year. Melvin Trotter, 65, is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection beginning at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Trotter was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1986 killing of Virgie Langford, 70, who owned Langford’s Grocery Store in Palmetto, in southwest Florida's Manatee County.

‘Come on with it’: Arkansas inmate asks to hasten execution

A Faulkner County judge has scheduled an August hearing to determine whether a death row inmate can bypass his attorney’s advice, drop his remaining appeals, and hasten his execution. Scotty Ray Gardner, 65, is facing the death penalty for the 2016 killing of his girlfriend, Susan Heather Stubbs, in Conway. In letters sent to Circuit Judge Chuck Clawson and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Gardner said he wants to end his legal battles, writing that he is tired of prison life and skeptical he will receive a fair hearing. “It’s simple,” Gardner wrote in a September letter. “Come on with it.”

Florida executes Melvin Trotter

The execution of Melvin Trotter for the murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford in 1986 comes as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor questions Florida's 'deeply troubling' lethal injection record. Florida has executed its second inmate of the year even as a Supreme Court justice questioned the state's “deeply troubling" record on lethal injections and how it "shrouds its executions in secrecy." Melvin Trotter, 65, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, Feb. 24, for the 1986 murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford, a mother of 4 who was on the verge of retirement when she was stabbed to death in the corner grocery store that she owned for five decades. Trotter was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. ET.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog