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 thr 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."
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