Report: Drugs fatal in difficult execution
OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma death row inmate who died after a troubled execution succumbed to the lethal drugs he was administered, not a heart attack, after the state's prisons chief halted efforts to kill him, an autopsy report released Thursday says.
Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton had said inmate Clayton Lockett died from a heart attack several minutes after he ordered the execution stopped. But the autopsy report performed for the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety says all three execution drugs were found throughout Lockett's system. A medical examiner declared that the cause of death was "judicial execution by lethal injection."
Oklahoma put executions on hold after Lockett gasped and writhed against his restraints for several minutes after his April execution began. Lockett was poked several times as medical technicians tried to find a vein before settling on using one at his groin.
Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, has ordered public safety officials to review the events surrounding Lockett's death, including state execution protocols that had been changed in the weeks before Lockett's execution. The state Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to not schedule executions for six months. Three are set for mid-November and early December.
Brain-eating amoeba found in Louisiana
BATON ROUGE -- A potentially deadly brain-eating amoeba was discovered in a water system that serves more than 12,500 people, and Louisiana officials started flushing the system Thursday.
No illnesses or deaths have been attributed to the Naegleria fowleri amoeba.
The flushing process will take two months, but the water is safe to drink for people in St. John the Baptist Parish, which is in southeast Louisiana, the state Department of Health and Hospitals said. Swimming or diving in freshwater lakes and rivers is the most common way to contract the amoeba, which can cause injury or death if it gets to the brain, usually through nasal passages.
The amoeba is rare. In 2011, a child died after apparently contracting the organism in St. Bernard Parish, a New Orleans suburb. Last year, an Arkansas girl, Kali Hardig, survived a Naegleria fowleri infection.
Officials said the Naegleria fowleri amoeba was found in the water system serving people in the Reserve, Garyville and Mount Airy communities.
U.S. says Oklahoma schools miss mark
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma is losing its independence to decide the best way to spend about $29 million in federal dollars to improve how students perform in its public schools, education officials said Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to the state saying that Oklahoma's public school standards aren't sufficiently preparing students for college or careers and will no longer grant a waiver to let the state bypass some provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. That waiver gave the state flexibility on how to spend the money.
Assistant Education Secretary Deborah Delisle said Oklahoma had promised to carry out plans to improve education for all students. But Oklahoma's Republican-dominated Legislature voted earlier this year to dump the so-called Common Core, saying the national standards were a federal intrusion in state jurisdiction over education. Republican Gov. Mary Fallin signed the law, which calls for Oklahoma to revert to the state standards in place in 2010.
Common Core standards are a national benchmark for what students should learn in such subjects as math and English that have been adopted in more than 40 states.
Prosecutors: Porch shot merits 17 years
DETROIT -- Prosecutors are recommending at least 17 years in prison for a Detroit-area man who killed an unarmed woman on his porch, while his lawyer is urging a judge to go as low as six years.
Theodore Wafer, 55, of Dearborn Heights returns to court next Wednesday, about a month after he was convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting of Renisha McBride.
In a court filing, Wayne County prosecutors said Wafer's sentencing guidelines for murder call for a minimum punishment anywhere between 15 and 25 years in prison. That would be in addition to an automatic two-year sentence for unlawful use of a gun.
Defense attorney Cheryl Carpenter countered with her own 12-page filing Thursday, urging the judge to go well below the guidelines and sentence Wafer to as few as six years in prison, including two for the gun crime.
Wafer shot McBride last Nov. 2. He insisted it was self-defense in response to the 19-year-old pounding at his doors at 4:30 a.m. The jury, however, found his reaction was unreasonable.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 08/29/2014