Penalty, states have muched away from hanging, gas chambers, firing squads, the electric chair toward lethal injection. For supporters of the Death Penalty, introducing a series of drugs to dispatch a convicted killer swept aside constitutional concerns about cruel and unusual punishment. Now a group of states have stepped away from the Death Penalty either by law or in practice. Foreign pharmaceutical producers refuse to sell states the drugs they use to execute prisoners, and medical associations say they dont want their members overseeing the work of killing people. It appears to be getting tougher and tougher to carry out the ultimate sanction without prolonged executions like the one this week in arizona. It took one hour and 57 minutes for convicted felon joseph wood to die. Death by lethal injection is supposed to be a more humane execution method and to take only minutes. One witness said wood gasped for air hundreds of times before falling silent. To watch a man lay there for an hour and 40 minutes gulping air is like catching a fish and throwing it on the shore. He was clearly struggling for breath, and thats atypical because usually an execution takes 10, 11 minutes, and you see virtually nothing. Reporter wood was sentenced to get for the 1989 doublemurder of his girlfriend and her father at the familys auto body shop in tucson, arizona. Whats excruciating is seeing your dad lying there in a pool of blood and your sister. Thats excruciating. Reporter as the execution continued, woods attorney filed an emergency petition to stop the process and have his client resuscitated. His attorneys argued the execution was cruel and unusual punishment forbidden by the constitution. Supreme Court JusticeAnthony Kennedy denied the appeal. Wood was pronounced dead at 3 49 p. M. To me it looked like he was sleeping, he was snoring. Thats what i saw. Then he passed away. How is that suffering . Reporter arizonas department of corrections disputes woods lawyers claim that the execution violated the condemned mans rights. Jan brewer said he died in a lawful manner and by eyewitness and medical accounts he did not suffer. Nevertheless governor brewer promised a full review of the incident. This is the third case this year that called into question the procedures used for death by lethal injection. In january Dennis Mcguire was put to death in ohio with a twodrug combination. It was the first time ohio had used that twodrug mix. By all accounts the inmate struggled in death as his execution took 25 minutes. Arizona used same two drugs. In april clay done locket was executed in oklahoma using the drug. Witnesses say locket jerked forward and appeared to be writhing in pain and then he died of a heart attack. Theres no protocol, so states come up with their own formulas. Some european producers have stopped selling them to states because they oppose the Death Penalty. It was reinstated in the United States in 1977 and its on the books in 32 states right now. 14 states have not executed anyone in five years. Nationwide polling shows diminishing support for Capital Punishment as Violent Crime rates decline as well, six states have ended their use of the Death Penalty since 2006. What goes on in the nations active Death Chambers this time on inside story. Why so many recent executions like that of joseph wood . The april execution of clayton locket where it took 51 minutes to find a suitable vein or the ohio execution that say Dennis Mcguire writhing on the gurney with fists clenched . Is lethal injection more humane and less risky than the hanging and firing squad. We begin with a reporter for tucson news now that witnessed the execution of joseph wood. Welcome. What are your expectations going into the Death Chamber . Did you prepare before going in . This was the first time i was sent to watch an execution. I wanted to prepare myself and wanted to see what it would be like. I talked to colleagues who had experienced executions themselves by lethal injection. They said it was for the most part very clinical. They said usually the procedure and the person dying takes about 10 minutes. That certainly wasnt the case this time. So through that research it was quite not what i it wasnt what i expected when i got there. Tell us what you did see once the condemned man was strapped to the gurney and prepared for execution. The first 10 minutes appeared to be fine. They strapped him down. His eyes closed. He appears to just fall asleep. After those ten minutes, though, you could sort of see movement from joseph woods body. At first a sort of movement on the side of his stomach, and then the first time i saw his throat and his Mouth Opening sort of like a gulp or trying to gasp for air. I counted one, two several seconds later and continued for that for like five to eight seconds for over an hour and a half. Was there any sense that the witnesses got that people on the team meant to carry out this execution knew something wasnt going right . It certainly seemed like they were continuing with the execution just looking at other people around the room. After 30, 40 minutes, people started to look around. Some concerned faces trying to see if they will continue this. One of my thoughts was, how long is this going to take . Are they considering stopping it . The state says mr. Wood was never in any pain or distress. I guess pain is hard to tell and its hard to know the truth of that. Distress might be something that is observable. Do you agree with the states assessment . For the most part seeing wood on the table, he he appeared to fall asleep and his eyes were closed the entire time. As far as if he might have felt anything of that sort, its really not known. Just observing him for the most part his whole body was very still except the gasps or the gulps he was doing every 5 to 8 seconds. Its really hard to tell if he felt anything. How long in all did it take to pronounce him dead, to check if this was finally over and come to a legal conclusion that the execution had been carried out . It was a very long process there. Again, as i was doing my research, most people said it would take about ten minutes for him to die. It took an hour and 57 minutes. Watching those gulps, i could really see through my notes the time line of counting those gulps 100, 200, 300. I counted 660 throughout the one hour and 40 minutes. They had medical staff come and check him six times i counted. They told us he was still sedated, and thats how they continued to check him. Hes a reporter for tucson news now and joins us from tucson. Thanks for being with us. My pleasure. Thank you. Were going to take a short break now, and when we come back, well be joined by experts, longtime observers of the National Scene in Capital Punishment. This is inside story. Stay with us. Disappearing polar caps. In the arctic the prize promises to be much substantial untapped resources. The really big expense hasnt been tested in the arctic could Climate Change reveal new battlefields . Countries are developing combat capabilities fault lines Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. Theyre blocking the doors. Ground breaking. We have to get out of here. Truth seeking. Award winning investigative documentary series the battle for the arctic only on Al Jazeera America now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. Get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. A global perspective wherever you are. The major headlines in context. Mashable says. Youll never miss the latest news they will continue looking for survivors. The potential for Energy Production is huge. No noise, no clutter, just real reporting. The new Al Jazeera America mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. Download it now the states governor jan brewer said wood did not suffer and reminded the public of the gruesome, vicious suffering he inflicted on his two victims and the lifetime of suffering he caused their family. Thats a quote from jan brewer. Well continue our look at the continuing debates over execution methods in the United States with the professor of jurisprudence and political sn at Amherst College and author of gruesome spectacles and daniel le chance, a professor of history at emery university. Professor la chance, in my introduction i mentioned that there was no National Protocol for carrying out executions. Its been 37 years. It sounds like sufficient time to come up with a drug regimen that kills somebody without torturing them. Yes. Unfortunately, you know, i think the history of executions in the United States shows us that this is one part of a longer history of executions and their methods becoming increasingly problematic over time and hitting a crisis moem where the people and elected officials have to decide whether or not theyre going to continue to tolerate that method of execution. Wasnt the move to lethal injection in part away to take the possibility of cruel and unusual punishment off the table . I think thats exactly right. In fact, if you look at the history of the Capital Punishment in the 20th century in the United States, its a kind of romance of technology. The search for a method of execution that would be safe, reliable and humane, if you go back to the beginning of the century and look what was said about electrocution and what was said about the gas chamber and finally in the late 1970s, early 1980s what proponents of lethal injection said about that technique, its all of the same. Each method is proclaimed to be more humane, more reliable and safer than the rest, and let me just say the idea of a National Protocol for lethal injection runs up against several bear yirs, the most important of which is the Death Penalty is mostly a state affair. Each state has a right to decide on the method of execution and to develop its own protocol. We could have a kind of model stat statue. The Justice Department could offer guidance, but at the end of the day, the protocol and forms of drugs used increasingly whether or not states are going to tell the condemned where they get the drugs, all thats really a matter of state prerogative. Perhaps a better phrase might be nationally understood technique rather than National Protocol. Not a requirement, but the idea that we actually learned something over time and methods for executing prisoners demonstrates some sort of learning kufcurve. In the case of the Arizona Execution this week, they used the same twodrug cocktail thats been just as problematic in other Death Chambers around the country. Look, we can talk about the Death Penalty that we wish we had. Thats one way of talking about the Death Penalty. I much prefer that we look at the Death Penalty we have. When you look at the Death Penalty we actually have, the Death Penalty system in the United States seeming to be on the verge of collapse. If you look at the process through which we determine who is guilty and innocent, youve seen that the Death Penalty system doesnt function very well in differentiating the guilty from the innocent. If you look at the process through which we select among those who we have convicted, who will get the Death Penalty, there we see it filled with bias and arbitrariness. Now with respect to to the execution, americans are coming to terms with the fact that there is no safe, reliable guarantee that when we execute people we will not violate and damage some very important American Values. Professor la chance, for all the problems that professor sarid identifies, the Death Penalty still enjoying majority support among americans, and certainly if you break it apart regionally, there are parts of the countries that are solidly for it while others backed away. Isnt that the case . It is the case. I mean, you know, those polling numbers that we hear so often are simply answers to the question, does a person who has has been convicted of firstdegree murder deserve to be put to death . However, we pound when we change the question american support drops dramatically for the Death Penalty. If you ask people if theres an option of life without parole, support for the Death Penalty declines. If you ask if they support putting capital murderers in prison for the rest of their life and having them work and the proceeds go to family members of the victims, it declines even further. So part of the problem with polls is they only capture a kind of broad, general sense of support for the Death Penalty without these qualifiers that really do make a difference. I always say support for the Death Penalty is a mile wide, but its really an inch deep. If we go to some states that have the most active Death Chambers, today in 2014, there wouldnt be majority support for the use of that sanction in states like texas, like oklahoma . Absolutely there would be majority support, but again, its the question that we ask people when we poll them. When you just ask them do you support the Death Penalty . Most americans say yes, and that will happen all over the country and even in europe where the Death Penalty has been abolished by the european union. Again, it really depends on proving peoples ideas about justice and what those ideas mean. I would add that even in texas, which is the capital of Capital Punishment, only 40 or so of the people that have been sentenced to death there have actually suffered the ultimate penalty because the appellate process has grown so long over the years and created a real backlog there as well. Were going to take a short break, and when we come back, well talk about the future of the Death Penalty in this country as states, even though they dont have laws, have stopped to use it and it becomes more and more difficult to obtain the drugs at that states are using to carry out the executions. This is inside story. Stay with us. Israels invasion of gaza continues tonight. We have been hearing a lot of tank shelling coming from where we are, here. Every single one of these buildings shook violently. For continuing coverage of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, stay with Al Jazeera America, your global news leader. Talk to al jazeera only on Al Jazeera America and as the prolonged executions in various states have demonstrated, the Current System may not be serving the purposes that saw states moving away from other methods in the first place. Joins our discussion now is karrina lane, professor at the university of Richmond Law School and still with us, the professor of jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College and daniel le chance, a professor of history at emory university. Professor lane, just before you joined us, we were talking about what austin called the Death Penalty we actual have versus the one we think we have. In practice is it getting tougher to execute condemned americans . It absolutely is. It has been getting tougher since january 2011 when the primary domestic producer of the drug pulled out of the market. Was that a stated objective of that producer, to stop making this, stop importing it, stop supplying it . How did that happen . Yeah. It actually was. The sole domestic producer of the drug was hospira. They had a North Carolina plant and moved to italy. Italy has longstanding opposition to Capital Punishment, and the italian authorities said, were not going to license the plant unless you can guarantee that your product will not be used in Capital Punishment. Also, there was some talk about the company being held liable if its product was known to be used in Capital Punishment for aiding and abetting Capital Punishment, which is against the law in italy. So they made the decision that it was going to get out of the market entirely, and it stopped producing it. The surprising part about that is if theres any motif of the last generation, its that you can buy anything you want anywhere in the world if you want it badly enough. It seems strange that correctional institutions cant simply wade into a Worldwide Market and acquire desired chemicals. Yeah, it really is. I call that the advent of the moral marketplace. It is strange, because we think that the we think of the supply side of the market as amoral. If you want