Inmate takes nearly two hours to die during execution.

A condemned murderer took nearly two hours to die and gasped for about 90 minutes during an execution in Arizona that quickly rekindled the national debate on capital punishment in the US.

Normally a successful execution would last under 10 minutes.

The execution of 55-year-old Joseph Rudolph Wood took so long that his lawyers had time to file an emergency appeal while it was ongoing. The Arizona Supreme Court also called an impromptu hearing on the matter and learned of his death during the discussions.

“He has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour,” Wood’s lawyers wrote in a legal filing demanding that the courts stop it. “He is still alive.”

It is the third prolonged execution this year in the US, including one in Ohio in which an inmate gasped in similar fashion for nearly half an hour. An Oklahoma inmate died of a heart attack in April, minutes after officials halted his execution because the drugs weren’t being administered properly.

Governor Jan Brewer is ordering a full review of the execution process, saying she is concerned by how long it took for the drug protocol to kill Wood.

Arizona attorney general Tom Horne’s office said Wood was pronounced dead at 3.49pm, one hour and 57 minutes after the execution started.

Witnesses saw Wood start gasping shortly after a sedative and a pain killer were injected into his veins. He gasped over 600 times over the next 90 minutes. During the gasps, his jaw dropped and his chest expanded and contracted. Family members of his victims in a double 1989 murder said they had no problems with the way the execution was carried out. “This man conducted a horrific murder and you guys are going, let’s worry about the drugs,” Richard Brown, a brother-in-law of one of the victims said.

“Why didn’t they give him a bullet?”