Man being given lethal injection has to direct execution team on how to find a vein

Tucson, June 10 (RHC)-- The U.S. state of Arizona has put 66-year-old condemned prisoner Frank Atwood to death after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected calls for a reprieve. 

When the time came for his execution, prison officials strapped Atwood to a gurney and injected him with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, stopping his heart. 

Jimmy Jenkins, a reporter with The Arizona Republic who witnessed the killing, said the execution team struggled to find a vein for around 30 minutes, prompting Atwood to twice suggest new places on his body for the team to try. 

Jenkins tweeted afterward: “I just watched Frank Atwood direct the state of Arizona on how to insert IVs into his veins properly so they could administer the drugs that would kill him.” 

Atwood was the 39th person executed in Arizona since 1992 and the second in less than a month.