The state of Oklahoma failed to properly execute a death row inmate using an experimental drug cocktail, prompting the state to postpone another execution. The execution of Clayton Lockett was halted 20 minutes after he was injected when correction official Robert Patton observed he was still alive and attempting to free himself.
Witnesses observed Lockett struggling violently, groaning and attempting to speak minutes after the first drugs were delivered into the his system. “Man … I’m not … Something’s wrong,” were some of the last words spoken by Lockett according to Courtney Francisco, a witness to the execution. The blinds separating the execution chamber from the viewing room were closed and the execution was called off. Lockett died of a heart attack in the chamber a short time later.
“It was a horrible thing to witness,” said Lockett’s attorney, David Autry. “This was totally botched.” Tuesday was the first time Oklahoma used the controversial drug cocktail. One of the drugs used, Midazolam, has been used successfully in other death penalty states, including Florida, Louisiana, and Ohio. He was “tortured to death,” Autry concluded.
The execution of death row inmate Charles Warner was postponed for 14 days by Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin. Fallin ordered a “full review of Oklahoma’s execution procedures to determine what happened and why during this evening’s execution” by Department of Corrections in the state.
Both men, convicted of rape and murder, were at the center of a lawsuit asking officials to investigate the drug cocktail that had never been used in American executions. An Oklahoma court originally ordered stays of execution for both prisoners, but those were lifted last week. The court ruled that the men did not have a right to know what drugs would be used in their execution.
“They wanted to hurry up and get it done with as little transparency as possible,” Autry told reporters. “There should not be another execution in this state until there is a full investigation into what went wrong.”
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