When do we stop this shameful, barbaric practice and simply accept the reality that taking life isn't right whether it's state-sanctioned or not? MSNBC: Tonight on the show, we covered the breaking news of an execution in Arizona that took nearly two hours to complete. The Arizona Department of Corrections used a new cocktail of drugs, including one – midazolam – that has been linked to other executions that did not go as planned. Witnesses to the execution today describe the prisoner as gasping for air more than 600 times.