WASHINGTON: The US state of Arizona executed a 71-year-old man Wednesday, more than three decades after he was sentenced to death for murder.
Edward Schad was declared dead by lethal injection at 10:12 am (1712 GMT), said Doug Nick, a spokesman for the southwestern state's Department of Corrections.
"Well, after 34 years, I'm free to fly away home," said Schad, strapped to the execution table. "Thank you warden. Those are my last words."
Schad was sentenced to death in 1980 for the murder two years earlier of Lorimer "Leroy" Grove, 74, whose corpse was found with a cord around its neck eight days after he left for a road trip.
Schad was arrested a month later in neighboring Utah in possession of Schad's credit cards and driving the victim's new Cadillac.
All his appeals failed and, as a last resort, he argued that the barbiturate used for lethal injections in Arizona had not been approved by federal regulators.
Several US states are facing a shortfall of pentobarbital, an anesthetic used to euthanize animals, since the Danish producer refused to provide it for executing humans.
Some states, such as Texas, have turned to compounding pharmacies to make customized supplies. They face suits from inmates who warn of potentially contaminated products.
Three death row inmates suing Texas over a change in the source of pentobarbital warn it has "a high risk of excruciating pain."
Compounding pharmacies -- which are regulated by local US state authorities and not federal, national ones -- sparked a scandal in November 2012, when one such company was deemed responsible for a deadly meningitis outbreak because of poor hygiene.
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