Botched and bungled are the words being used to describe an Arizona execution that continues to call into question current execution techniques in the U.S. prison system. Lawyers for Arizona murderer Joseph Wood said the death row inmate suffered for two hours gasping for breath following his execution Wednesday night. 

Following the execution, the state have ordered a stop to executions until the incident can be reviewed.

It's the third execution this year, following troubled execution in Ohio and Oklahoma, that has called into question the use of unnamed drugs to kill prisoners on death row.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement that she would order the department of corrections to look into the matter. While the governor didn't assume any wrongdoing had been committed, she did refer to eyewitness and medical accounts that said Wood did not suffer. 

However, a reporter from the Associate Press who witnessed the execution said that Wood "gasped more than 600 times over the next hour and 40 minutes."

According to Arizona Attorney General Tom Home, the execution began at 1:52 p.m., but Wood wasn't pronounced dead until 3:49 p.m. A normal execution reportedly takes about half that time.

Wood's attorney's had previously challenged the state to reveal the drugs being used in his execution, and tried to grant and 11th hour stay of execution. However, a judge ordered the execution to proceed earlier Wednesday.

Attorney Dale Baich, reported Reuters, "called on Arizona to allow an independent investigation of what he called 'the most prolonged bungled execution in recent history,' to determine among other things which drugs were used in what amounts."

The report also details a previous execution that went wrong, noting and Ohio execution in which "a death row inmate took 25 minutes to die and reportedly convulsed and gasped for breath in January after he was injected with a deadly sedative-painkiller mix of midazolam and hydromorphone, the first such combination used for a lethal injection in the United States."

"Many U.S. states are trying new execution drugs because some European countries have imposed export bans on drugs that will be used in executions," according to the BBC. 

Another troubled execution occurred in Oklahoma in April where a "convicted killer writhed in pain as a needle became dislodged during his execution. The process was halted, but the man died anyway of a heart attack. Arizona had said it would use the same combination of drugs that were used in Ohio but at higher doses. "

Ohio has halted its executions until Aug. 15 following their so-called botched incident. Arizon also will temporarily cease executing inmates on Death Row, pending a review. Arizona will temporarily halt its executions, a state official announced on Thursday, but the any judgement about what happened is pending review.

"In a statement announcing the temporary moratorium on executions, Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan defended the execution and criticised media descriptions of it as 'botched' as premature and "erroneous', " the BBC.com reported.

In addition to the recent executions, the death penalty is coming under new scrutiny after a judge last week ruled California's death penalty system unconstitutional. The state hasn't executed anyone in over 5 years, but a Federal ruling on July 16 stated that California's death penalty system is so random and delayed that it's unconstitutional. 

"The death penalty has been effectively under a moratorium in the state since 2006, when Judge Jeremy Fogel of United States District Court in San Jose ordered changes in the state's execution methods," said the New York Times. "In 2008, Ronald M. George, then the chief justice of California, called the system for handling appeals in capital cases "dysfunctional."

A state-appointed commission reached a similar conclusion that year, stating the system was "plagued with excessive delay" in appointing lawyers and in reviews of appeals and petitions before the State Supreme Court."