(CNN) -- A vein on an Oklahoma inmate "exploded" in
the middle of his execution Tuesday, prompting authorities to abruptly
halt the process and call off another execution later in the day as they
try to figure out what went wrong.
The inmate, Clayton
Lockett, died 43 minutes after the first injection was administered --
according to reporter Courtney Francisco of CNN affiliate KFOR who witnessed the ordeal -- of an apparent heart attack, Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton said.
That first drug,
midazolam, is supposed to render a person unconscious. Seven minutes
later, Lockett was still conscious. About 16 minutes in, after his mouth
and then his head moved, he seemingly tried to get up and tried to
talk, saying "man" aloud, according to the KFOR account.
Other reporters -- including Cary Aspinwall of the Tulsa World
newspaper -- similarly claimed that Lockett was "still alive," having
lifted his head while prison officials lowered the blinds at that time
so that onlookers couldn't see what was going on.
Dean Sanderford,
Lockett's attorney, said that he saw his client's body start "to twitch
(and) he mumbled something." Then "the convulsing got worse, it looked
like his whole upper body was trying to lift off the gurney."
Yet the office of
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin issued a statement indicating "execution
officials said Lockett remained unconscious after the lethal injection
drugs were administered."
After the ordeal, Patton
told reporters that Lockett, a convicted murderer, had been sedated and
then was given the second and third drugs in protocol.
"There was some concern
at that time that the drugs were not having the effect, so the doctor
observed the line and determined that the line had blown," he said,
before elaborating that Lockett's vein had "exploded."
"I notified the attorney
general's office, the governor's office of my intent to stop the
execution and requested a stay for 14 days for the second execution
scheduled this afternoon," said Patton, referring to the execution of
Charles Warner.
Dianne Clay, a
spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office, said Tuesday night
that her office was "gathering information on what happened in order to
evaluate."
The state's governor ordered an investigation and issued an executive order granting a 2-week delay in executions.
"I have asked the
Department of Corrections to conduct a full review of Oklahoma's
execution procedures to determine what happened and why during this
evening's execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett," Fallin said in a
statement.
The constitutionality of
lethal injection drugs and drug cocktails has made headlines since last
year, when European manufacturers -- including Denmark-based Lundbeck,
which manufactures pentobarbital -- banned U.S. prisons from using their
drugs in executions. Thirty-two states were left to find new drug
protocols.
According to the
Oklahoma Department of Corrections, its protocol includes midazolam,
which causes unconsciousness, vecuronium bromide, which stops
respiration, and potassium chloride, which is meant to stop the heart.
Lockett was convicted in 2000 of a bevy of crimes,
including first-degree murder, first-degree rape, kidnapping and
robbery in a 1999 home invasion and crime spree that left Stephanie
Nieman dead and two people injured.
His final moments gave new life, at least temporarily, to Charles Warner.
Warner was convicted in 2003 for the first-degree rape and murder six years earlier of his then-girlfriend's 11-month-old daughter, Adrianna Waller.
The state decided to put
off his execution set for Tuesday. But it has given no indication this
delay will be indefinite despite calls from the likes of Adam Leathers,
co-chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, who
accused the state of having "tortured a human being in an
unconstitutional experimental act of evil."
"Tonight, our state government has acted in sin and violated God's law," Leathers said. "We will pray for their souls."
Notably, Lockett and
Warner -- who were both held at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in
McAlester -- had been at the center of a court fight over the drugs used
in their execution.
They'd initially
challenged the state Department of Corrections' unwillingness to divulge
which drugs would be used, only for the department to budge and
disclosed the substances.
But Lockett and Warner
didn't stop there, taking issue with the state's so-called secrecy
provision forbidding it from disclosing the identities of anyone
involved in the execution process or suppliers of any drugs or medical
equipment.
Oklahoma's high court
initially issued stays on their executions, only to lift those stays
last week in ruling the two men had no right to know the source of the
drugs intended to kill them.
Warner's attorney,
Madeline Cohen, said that further legal action can be expected given how
"something went horribly awry" Tuesday.
"Oklahoma cannot carry
out further executions until there's transparency in this process,"
Cohen said. "...I think they should all be looking at themselves hard.
Oklahoma needs to take a step back."
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/29/us/oklahoma-botched-execution/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
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