A convicted child killer in Arizona has had his execution date scheduled after a judicial board denied him clemency.
Frank Atwood, 66, has been on death row in the state since 1984 after he was found guilty of the rape and murder of eight-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson.
Atwood, who denies the crime, will be executed on June 8, 2022. The judicial board said it’s ‘high time he accepts responsibility for his heinous crimes'.
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According to the Daily Star, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said at a hearing on May 24: “Arizona confirmed its resolute message to a child rapist and killer today. It’s high time to accept responsibility for your heinous crimes.”
AZ Central notes that Board Chair Mina Mendez added: “Based on my review of the entirety of the record, I found that the evidence considered by the jury to be overwhelming evidence of Mr. Atwood’s guilt.
“Mr. Atwood is not innocent – not by any stretch of the imagination.”
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Earlier this month, Atwood was given two weeks to decide whether he’d rather be executed by lethal injection or cyanide gas.
Cyanide gas is a poison known as Zyklon B and was used by the Nazis to murder millions of concentration camp prisoners.
On Tuesday, 3 May, the supreme court of Arizona told Atwood that he had until 19 May to decide how he wants to die, The Guardian reported at the time.
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The convicted criminal’s lawyers urged Atwood to opt for lethal injection, pointing out that the last time Arizona executed two prisoners with gas – back in the 1990s – they were subjected to ‘gruesome and prolonged deaths’.
It took one man 18 minutes to die, and he suffered ‘agonising choking and gagging’.
Joseph Perkovich, a member of Atwood’s legal team, said: “Cyanide is as bad as everybody thinks it is – there’s a reason the Nazis used it: it’s a horrific way to die.”
He added: “We are now in the position of having to dissuade our client from opting to go into a cyanide gas chamber, and we have 15 days to do it.”
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Perkovich also noted that the lethal injection will still mean Atwood is subjected to ‘agonising’ pain because he has degeneration of the spine.
Perkovich said: “Every second on that table will be agonising due to the severe spinal stenosis afflicting no less than 16 openings where his nerves exit his spine.”
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Aisha Nozari