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Oklahoma inmate dies after 'botched' lethal injection | Oklahoma inmate dies after 'botched' lethal injection |
(about 5 hours later) | |
A US death row inmate in Oklahoma died of a heart attack after his execution was halted because the lethal injection of three drugs failed to work properly. | |
The execution of Clayton Lockett, 38, was halted after 20 minutes, when one of his veins ruptured, preventing the drugs from taking full effect. | |
The execution of a fellow inmate, due two hours later, was postponed. | |
Both men had unsuccessfully challenged a state law that shields the identities of companies supplying the drugs. | |
It comes amid a wider debate over the legality of the three-drug method and whether its use violates guarantees in the US constitution "against cruel and unusual punishment". | |
Lockett was sentenced to death for the 1999 shooting of a 19-year-old woman. | |
'Tortured' | |
A spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections told US media that Lockett had died of a heart attack following the injection of three lethal drugs. | |
"We believe that a vein was blown and the drugs weren't working as they were designed to. The director ordered a halt to the execution," spokesman Jerry Massie said. | |
Lockett writhed and shook uncontrollably after the drugs were administered, witnesses said. | |
Prison officials pulled a curtain across the view of witnesses when it became apparent that something had gone wrong. | Prison officials pulled a curtain across the view of witnesses when it became apparent that something had gone wrong. |
"He was conscious and blinking, licking his lips even after the process began. He then began to seize," Associated Press news agency reporter Bailey Elise McBride tweeted from the scene. | "He was conscious and blinking, licking his lips even after the process began. He then began to seize," Associated Press news agency reporter Bailey Elise McBride tweeted from the scene. |
Lockett's lawyer, Madeline Cohen, who witnessed the execution, said her client "was tortured to death" and called for an investigation into what went wrong. | |
"The state must disclose complete information about the drugs, including their purity, efficacy, source and the results of any testing," she said. | |
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said in a statement that she had ordered a full review of the state's execution procedures. | |
Challenge overruled | |
Fellow inmate Charles Warner, 46, had been scheduled to be put to death in the same room two hours later in a rare double execution. | |
Warner was convicted of the 1997 murder and rape of an 11-month-old girl. | |
He and Lockett had unsuccessfully challenged an Oklahoma state law that blocks officials from revealing - even in court - the identities of the companies supplying the drugs used to sedate inmates, paralyse their respiratory systems and stop their hearts. | |
The state maintains the law is necessary to protect the suppliers from legal action and harassment. | The state maintains the law is necessary to protect the suppliers from legal action and harassment. |
Lockett and Warner argued they needed to know the names of the suppliers in order to ensure the quality of the drugs that would be used to kill them and to be certain that they had been obtained legally. | |
In March, a trial court ruled in their favour, but the state's highest court reversed that decision last week, ruling that "the plaintiffs have no more right to the information they requested than if they were being executed in the electric chair". | |
In recent years US states have had increasing problems in trying to obtain drugs used in executions, amid an embargo by European pharmaceutical firms. | In recent years US states have had increasing problems in trying to obtain drugs used in executions, amid an embargo by European pharmaceutical firms. |
Some have turned to untried combinations of drugs or have sought to obtain the drugs custom-made from compounding pharmacies. | Some have turned to untried combinations of drugs or have sought to obtain the drugs custom-made from compounding pharmacies. |
The triple-drug cocktail, first used in Texas in 1982, has become the standard execution method in the US. | |
It was presented as a more humane replacement for lethal gas and the electric chair, but critics of the three-drug protocol say it could cause unnecessary suffering. | |
Several US states that still have the death penalty have since switched to a single-drug method. |