Judge mulls Arizona prisoner’s request to delay execution

By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge is considering whether to postpone the execution of an Arizona prisoner who argues the state’s death penalty procedures would violate his rights by subjecting him to unimaginable pain. Attorneys for Frank Atwood said their client would undergo excruciating suffering if he were strapped to the execution gurney while lying on his back because he has a degenerative spinal condition that has left him in a wheelchair. Atwood is scheduled to be lethally injected Wednesday for his murder conviction in the 1984 killing of 8-year-old Vicki Hoskinson. Prosecutors say Atwood is trying to indefinitely postpone his execution through legal maneuvers.