Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan announced today the state will stop executing prisoners with the drug combination used on Joseph Wood, who took two hours to die in July.

The state has agreed not to execute anyone until after a judge has ruled on a lawsuit asking for the Department of Corrections to release information on drugs used to execute a prisoner who snorted and gasped for two hours before dying.

It could be months before Arizona officials seek execution warrants for death-row inmates after a judge granted a joint request by the state and defense attorneys.

The Arizona Department of Corrections is changing its marriage policy to conform to state law allowing same-sex partners to tie the knot. The only catch: The policy will still ban inmates of any sexual orientation from getting married to each other in prison.

An independent investigation of the nearly two-hour execution of an Arizona death row inmate is expected to be completed in the next two weeks, attorneys representing the state said Wednesday.

Facing a lawsuit they appeared to be losing, state prison officials have agreed to improve health care for the more than 34,000 inmates in their custody.

An Arizona death-row prisoner who was convicted in the 1996 murders of six people convinced the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals he has a valid claim the Arizona Department of Corrections illegally read mail intended for his lawyer.

Attorneys for two Arizona death row inmates are asking the Department of Corrections for information on who manufactured the drugs that will be used for their lethal injections.

A federal appellate court has agreed to decide whether Arizona’s 33,000 prisoners can be in a lawsuit alleging that prison healthcare and confinement conditions amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Raising doubts from skeptics, Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan told a legislative committee Wednesday the department has no solitary confinement, despite keeping the maximum-security inmates in their cells alone for 22 hours a day.