Clarence Dixon dies in state’s first execution since 2014

An Arizona man convicted of killing a college student in 1978 was put to death Wednesday after a nearly eight-year hiatus in the state’s use of the death penalty brought on by an execution that critics say was botched — and the difficulty state officials faced in sourcing lethal injection drugs.

Clarence Dixon, 66, died by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence for his murder conviction in the killing of 21-year-old Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin, making him the sixth person to be executed in the U.S. in 2022. Dixon’s death was announced late Wednesday morning by Frank Strada, a deputy director with Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. Dixon’s lawyers had tried to postpone the execution, but judges rejected the argument that he was not mentally fit to be executed. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute delay of Dixon’s execution less than an hour before the execution began.