Clarence Dixon: Arizona executes first prisoner in almost a decade

FLORENCE, Ariz. — A man was executed in Arizona Wednesday after he was convicted of killing a student at Arizona State University in 1978. It was the state’s first execution in nearly a decade.

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Clarence Dixon, 66, was executed by lethal injection at Florence Prison in Arizona. It was the first in eight years and the sixth execution in the United States in 2022, according to the Associated Press. Dixon was convicted in 1978 in the death of ASU student Deana Bowdin, 21.

KNXV-TV says the execution started at 10 a.m. and he was declared dead 30 minutes later. They say his last meal was Kentucky Fried Chicken, a half-pint of strawberry ice cream and a bottle of water, according to documents that KNXV-TV received.

Bowdin was found dead in her apartment in Tempe, Arizona. The AP says she was raped, stabbed and then strangled with a belt.

A cold case detective in Tempe used DNA evidence to link Dixon to Bowdoin’s case in 2008, according to KPNX. It took about 30 years to connect him to her death.

KNXV-TV says in 2008, Dixon was already serving a life sentence for a different sexual assault in 1986.

Dixon was also an ASU student and lived across the street. The rape charge was dropped due to the statute of limitations but he was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death, according to the AP.

Dixon’s death was announced by Deputy Director Frank Strada of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry, according to the AP. Over the last few weeks, Dixon’s lawyers were making arguments to postpone his execution by stating he wasn’t mentally fit, but the judge rejected the argument. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute plea from Dixon’s lawyers, just an hour before it was scheduled to begin.

Dixon chose to die by lethal injection. The other option would have been in the gas chamber, which hasn’t been used in the U.S. in about 20 years. The AP says Arizona refurbished the gas chamber in 2020 at Florence Prison.

The last time Arizona executed someone on death row was in 2014, according to the AP.

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