Botched execution adds to US death penalty alarm

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2d845350-d018-11e3-a2b7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz30MgO7pee

April 30, 2014 5:45 am
Botched execution adds to US death penalty alarm

By Barney Jopson in Washington
This June 29, 2011 file photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Clayton Lockett.


A botched US execution led to the drawn-out death of a prisoner from a heart attack after the procedure to kill him using a controversial set of lethal drugs was halted as he writhed on a gurney.

The execution in Oklahoma on Tuesday evening was called off after Clayton Lockett, who had been declared unconscious, began writhing, gasping, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head, according to the Associated Press.

Lockett died of a heart attack 43 minutes after the first drugs were administered. He had launched a failed legal challenge to force the disclosure of the identities of companies supplying the lethal injection drugs that would be used to execute him.

The botched execution is likely to fuel debate over the death penalty in the US and the use of lethal injection drugs, which have become harder for states to secure as drugmakers opposed to capital punishment – especially in Europe – refuse to supply them.

Lockett’s elongated death prompted Oklahoma to postpone the execution of Charles Warner, also scheduled for Tuesday. He had appealed jointly with Lockett for the disclosure of drug sources, sparking weeks of conflict in the Oklahoma courts.

Oklahoma’s corrections department was using a lethal injection protocol that had been used previously in Florida, but Oklahoma planned to give a much lower dose of midazolam, which is injected first to render the prisoner unconscious.

The corrections department said the three drugs involved did not have the desired effect because one of Lockett’s veins had “blown”, preventing them from getting into his bloodstream.

The Oklahoman newspaper said: “After being declared unconscious 10 minutes into the process, Lockett spoke at three separate moments. The first two were inaudible, however the third time he spoke, Lockett said the word ‘man’.”

Officials closed the curtains in the execution room after Lockett convulsed several times. David Autry, one of Lockett’s lawyers, said: “This was botched, and it was difficult to watch.”

Lockett was convicted of the 1999 murder of a 19-year-old woman. Warner was convicted for the 1997 murder and rape of an 11-month-old girl.

Several US states have gone to court to shield the identities of their execution drug suppliers.

Human rights activists have orchestrated long-running campaigns to cut off the supplies of prescription medicines which can be used for lethal injection to US prison services in states with the death penalty.

The increased difficulty of obtaining drugs has led some states to turn to untried combinations, or lightly regulated laboratories that mix drugs called compounding pharmacies.

Last year a Danish pension fund sold its $48m stake in Hospira in protest at the US pharmaceutical group’s failure to prevent its medicines being used for the execution of prisoners on Death Row.

OMG. That, IMO, crosses a line between the death penalty and torturing someone to death?

I'm sorry but if that had happened to the guy who raped and murdered the 11 year old girl, and it was proved he did it, then I wouldn't be very upset by that.

Killers torture their suspects themselves who die after feeling intense heart stopping terror. Maybe I should have more compassion.

I'm generally against the death penalty, Lily, not least because there were some awful miscarriages of justice when the UK had it.

However.....there are some people that, IMO, should simply be removed from the face of the earth, and I would rather it was done quickly, and without the theatrics. And especially without horrific public botch-ups - it's as bad as the old public executions.

I can't summon up much sympathy for the deceased, but he would have been just as dead with one bullet and no audience. If that makes sense.....

lily wrote:I'm sorry but if that had happened to the guy who raped and murdered the 11 year old girl, and it was proved he did it, then I wouldn't be very upset by that.  

Killers torture their suspects themselves who die after feeling intense heart stopping terror.  Maybe I should have more compassion.  

I used to be for the death penalty, especially after what happened to my family.  But what happened to the killer in my case was that his father only had the one child and that child died, I understand, of bowel and liver cancer, a very painful death before he reached 30.  I have children and grandchildren, he has nothing, assuming he is still alive.   At the time I would happily have executed him myself, but what would that have achieved?  His father was as guilty, he carelessly left his car kets where a 15 year old boy could see them - surely he should face the same fate as his under-age son?    Also the number of executions that have been shown to be of the wrong person always troubles me.  It's a very thorny subject but I still tend to having the death penalty for the muder of chikdren, police officers in the line of duty and doctors who kill for profit.  LL

LL, I understand totally what you are saying.   

This is what that guy had done to deserve his prison sentence.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter050814.php3#.U2uUdShFJ0h

Given what he did to his victims, there is a certain Karmic justice in him leaving this world so unpleasantly...

I thought so too Bonny, which is why I posted the article.