Arizona executed Clarence Dixon at the state prison in Florence on Wednesday for the 1978 murder of 21-year-old Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin, the Arizona Republic reports. "I do and always will proclaim my innocence — now let's do this shit," Dixon said, according to Deputy Corrections Director Frank Strada. Troy Hayden, a media witness from Fox News, said the execution team had trouble getting IVs into Dixon, who grimaced and appeared to be in pain . Dixon made several comments to the medical team, insulted them, told them "they worshipped death," mocked their Hippocratic oath, and mentioned several times the woman he was convicted of killing, saying she knew he didn't kill her.
Hayden said execution team members took 25 minutes to insert IVs into Dixon's body, eventually resorting to making an incision and inserting an IV into Dixon's groin. Hayden said Dixon he appeared to lose consciousness a few minutes after the drugs were administered. Taylor Tasler, a media witness from KTAR, said Dixon never made eye contact with anyone. She heard Dixon gasp after drugs were administered and then appeared to go to sleep. Dixon was the first man put to death by Arizona since the botched execution of Joseph Wood in 2014.