Heart attack fatal in messy execution

Oklahoman’s death spares 2nd convict

This June 29, 2011, file photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Clayton Lockett. Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Lockett on Tuesday, April 29, 2014, after the delivery of a new three-drug combination failed to go as planned.
This June 29, 2011, file photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Clayton Lockett. Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Lockett on Tuesday, April 29, 2014, after the delivery of a new three-drug combination failed to go as planned.

McALESTER, Okla. - An Oklahoma inmate died of a heart attack Tuesday after his execution was halted because the delivery of a new drug combination was botched, the director of the state Department of Corrections said.

Robert Patton said inmate Clayton Lockett, 38, was declared unconscious 10 minutes after the first of the state’s three drug combination was administered. Three minutes later, though, he began breathing heavily, writhing on the gurney, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow.

“There was some concern at that time that the drugs were not having that [desired] effect, and the doctor observed the [vein] at that time and determined the line had blown,” Patton said at a news conference afterward, referring to Lockett’s vein rupturing.

Patton then made a series of phone calls before calling a halt to the execution. It didn’t save Lockett.

“It was a horrible thing to witness. This was totally botched,” said Lockett’s attorney, David Autry.

“They should have anticipated possible problems with an untried execution protocol. Obviously the whole thing was gummed up and botched from beginning to end. Halting the execution obviously did Lockett no good,” Autry said.

Autry also questioned the amount of the sedative midazolam that was given to Lockett, saying he thought the 100 milligrams called for in the state’s execution protocol was “an overdose quantity.”

Republican Gov. Mary Fallin ordered a 14-day stay of execution for another inmate who was scheduled to die two hours after Lockett, Charles Warner. She also ordered 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.”

The executions of Lockett and Warner had been previously delayed while the inmates challenged the secrecy behind the state’s lethal injection protocol. Before Lockett’s botched execution, Oklahoma’s attorney general released a statement and an affidavit addressing arguments made bythe inmates’ lawyers.

An affidavit by Warden Anita Trammell said that under her qualifications and experience, the drugs to be used in Tuesday’s executions were legally obtained and stored in a way that would maintain their integrity and should cause no concern about causing pain to the inmates.

Tuesday would have been the first time since 1937 that two men were executed on the same day in Oklahoma.

Lockett, 38, was convicted of shooting 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman with a sawed-off shotgun and watching as two accomplices buried her alive in rural Kay County in 1999 after Neiman and a friend arrived at a home the men were robbing.

Warner’s execution was to be two hours after Lockett in the same room and on the same gurney. The 46-year-old was convicted of raping and killing his roommate’s 11-month-old daughter in 1997. He has maintained his innocence.

Lockett and Warner had sued the state for refusing to disclose details about the execution drugs, including where Oklahoma obtained them.

The case, filed as a civil matter, placed Oklahoma’s two highest courts at odds and prompted calls for the impeachment of state Supreme Court justices after the court last week issued a rare stay of execution. The high court later dissolved its stay and dismissed the inmates’ claim that they were entitled to know the source of the drugs.

By then, Gov. Mary Fallin had weighed into the matter by issuing a stay of execution of her own - a one-week delay in Lockett’s execution that resulted in both men being scheduled to die on the same day.

Reader poll

What is your opinion of capital punishment in light of the botched execution Tuesday in Oklahoma?

  • I've always been in favor of capital punishment and remain that way. 46%
  • The death penalty is wrong, and this fits the definition of "cruel and unusual punishment." 25%
  • States should revive older forms of capital punishment, such as the electric chair or firing squad. 18%
  • States should find alternate drug options for more humane executions. 7%
  • Other (please comment) 3%

127 total votes.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 04/30/2014

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