An American murderer died of a heart attack Tuesday more than 40 minutes after his execution was halted due to a botched lethal injection, leading Oklahoma to postpone the execution of a second inmate.
MSN – AFP, 30
Apr 2014
 |
| The execution of a US inmate -- using an untested lethal injection protocol -- was botched, leading authorities to immediately postpone a second execution planned for two hours later, Oklahoma prisons authorities have said |
Convicted
murderer and rapist Clayton Lockett was administered a new, untested three-drug
protocol that included a sedative, an anesthetic and a lethal dose of potassium
chloride in what would have been the central state's first double execution in
80 years.
But Oklahoma
Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton ordered the execution of
Lockett stopped about three or four minutes after the start of the injection at
6:23 pm (2323 GMT), citing a "vein failure," a prisons spokesman
said.
Lockett
died of a "massive heart attack" at 7:06 pm after receiving all three
drugs, spokesman Jerry Massie said.
Even though
he was administered the injection, "the drugs didn't go into the
system," the spokesman added.
Patton then
immediately ordered a 14-day delay to the execution of Charles Warner, who had
been set to be put to death two hours later.
Oklahoma
had previously postponed the two executions in March because of a shortage of
lethal injection drugs.
But the
state managed to get supplies, while changing the execution protocol, and the
two inmates exhausted their appeals.
Lockett was
convicted in 2000 for the rape and murder of a young woman he kidnapped, beat
and buried alive.
Warner was
convicted for the 1997 rape and murder of an 11-month-old girl.
Warner's
lawyer Madeline Cohen had argued against the new injection combination, saying
the "experimental new drug protocol, including a paralytic," would
make "it impossible to know whether the executions will comport with the
Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual suffering."
"Despite
repeated requests by counsel, the state has refused, again and again, to
provide information about the source, purity, testing and efficacy of the drugs
to be used. It's not even known whether the drugs were purchased legally,"
she said.
Both
Lockett and Warner had argued they had the constitutional right to know the
composition and origin of any drugs used in the lethal injection.
In a
judicial twist, Oklahoma's supreme court had first suspended the executions in
order to resolve the controversy, but then two days later reversed itself,
saying the men had no more right to information on drugs than they would for
the electric chair.
Since
European manufacturers began refusing to sell the most commonly used anesthetic
-- pentobarbital -- for human executions, several US states have found
themselves confronted with shortages, and are now seeking an alternative, which
has led to an increase in court cases over the issue.
The last
time two inmates were executed on the same night in Oklahoma was in 1937.
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