Killer Dies of Heart Attack After Forty Minutes Writhing in Agony and Sitting up to Tell Officers 'Something is Wrong'
-When Oklahoma Experimental Drug Execution goes Wrong Causing his Vein to Explode
- Clayton Lockett execution halted 20 minutes after first drug administered
- He received the entire ****tail of injections - which had never been tried in Oklahoma before - but for some reason the drugs didn't kill him
- Lockett sat up 14 minutes in and said 'something's wrong'
- The inmate finally suffered a massive heart attack and died at 7.06p.m.
- Lockett was sentenced to death for shooting a 19-year-old Perry woman and watching his friends bury her alive
- Refused last meal as it exceeded $15 price limit
By AP, 30 April 2014
Oklahoma tonight horribly botched the execution of a death row inmate. The execution of Clayton Lockett was halted tonight before he died in terrible agony 20 minutes later of a heart attack. The director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections says the execution was halted because the delivery of a new drug combination was botched. Robert Patton says inmate Lockett died after all three drugs were administered. Patton halted Lockett's execution about 20 minutes after the first drug was administered. He says there was a vein failure. Lockett was writhing on the gurney and shaking uncontrollably.
A death row inmate's execution was dramatically halted on Tuesday night in Oklahoma after a
new drug combination left the man writhing in agony on the gurney, before he later died of a massive heart attack.
The execution of Clayton Lockett, who was sentenced to death for shooting a 19-year-old Perry woman and watching his friends bury her alive, was halted about 20 minutes after the first of three experimental drugs was administered.
He received the entire ****tail of injections - which had never been tried in Oklahoma before - but for some reason the drugs didn't kill him.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections director Robert Patton said the inmate was writhing on the gurney and shaking uncontrollably about 13 minutes into the execution.
The execution began at 6:23 p.m. (11:23 p.m GMT) Tuesday when officials started to inject the first drug, and a doctor declared Lockett to be unconscious at 6:33 p.m.
About three minutes later, though, Lockett began breathing heavily, writhing on the gurney, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow.
At 6.37p.m., Lockett sat up and said 'something's wrong.'
After about three minutes, a doctor lifted the sheet that was covering Lockett to examine the injection site. After that, an official who was inside the death chamber lowered the blinds, preventing those in the viewing room from seeing what was happening.
Patton then made a series of phone calls before calling a halt to the execution.
The inmate finally suffered a massive heart attack and died at 7.06 p.m.
Moments later, Patton left the room to take a phone call in the hallway and when he returned, he said they'd had a 'vein failure.' It was later reported that his vein 'exploded'.
He said the execution was halted because the delivery of the new drug combination was botched.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections director Robert Patton, top, called off the failed execution.
Lockett was sentenced to death for shooting Stephanie Neiman, below, and watching his friends bury her alive
'The chemicals did not enter into the offender,' Patton said.
Patton said at a news conference afterward: 'There was some concern at (the time the doctor examined his injection site) that the drugs were not having that (desired) effect, and the doctor observed the line at that time and determined the line had blown,' referring to Lockett's vein rupturing.
'After conferring with the warden, and unknown how much drugs went into him, it was my decision at that time to stop the execution,' Patton told reporters.
Lockett was scheduled to die by an experimental three-drug execution method including the sedative midazolam.
After the failed execution, Governor Mary Fallin ordered a review of execution procedures in the state.
'I have asked 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 of Clayton Derrell Lockett,' she said Tuesday night.
A four-time felon, 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.
A second execution of Charles Warner was cancelled after the incident with Lockett. The state's governor issued an executive order delayed executions for two weeks.
Killer dies of heart attack after execution goes wrong....
Nightmare: Patton said the inmate was writhing on the gurney, pictured, and shaking uncontrollably about 13 minutes into the execution
43 AGONIZING MINUTES: HOW THE BOTCHED EXECUTION PLAYED OUT
Quote:
6:23 p.m. - The injection process begins. Lockett has heavy, slow blinks, laid still
6:29 p.m. - Consistently closed his eyes
6:30 p.m. - First check of consciousness; still conscious
6:33 p.m. - Announced Lockett was officially unconscious
6:34 p.m. - Lockett started to move his mouth
6:36 p.m. - Lockett began convulsing and mumbling
6:37 p.m. - Lockett sat up and said 'something's wrong'
6:39 p.m. - Prison officials lowered the blinds
7:06 p.m. - Lockett dies of massive heart attack
Source: KJRH.com
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Warner had been scheduled to be put to death two hours later 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.
The pair's death was to be the state's first double execution in nearly 80 years.
Jerry Massie, public information officer for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, earlier said the drug ****tail used in Lockett's execution had never been tried before by the State of Oklahoma. As such, it was unclear how long the execution might take.
Massie said the average time for the inmate to be pronounced dead was six to 12 minutes in the past 19 executions.
'It was extremely difficult to watch,' Lockett's attorney, David Autry, said afterward.
He also questioned the amount of the sedative midazolam that was given to Lockett, saying he thought that the 100 milligrams called for in the state's execution protocol was 'an overdose quantity.'
It was the first time Oklahoma administered midazolam as the first drug in its execution drug combination, but other states have used it. Florida administers 500 milligrams of midazolam as part of its three-drug combination.
Lockett and Warner had been trying to delay their executions by challenging the secrecy behind the state's lethal injection protocol.
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, 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.
'Our goal is to make sure justice is served,' Fallin said Tuesday. 'The courts have ruled, and there is no doubt as to the guilt of the perpetrators of the crimes.'
Warner was served a final meal Tuesday of 20 boneless chicken wings, potato wedges, cole slaw, two fruit ****tail cups and a 20-ounce soda.
Lockett's request of steak, shrimp, a large baked potato and a Kentucky Bourbon pecan pie was denied because it exceeded the $15 limit.
He declined a separate offer from the warden for a dinner from Western Sizzlin', prison officials said.
NEVER-BEFORE-TESTED DRUGS THAT TORTURED DEATH ROW INMATE ARE KNOWN TO HARM BREATHING AND HEART FUNCTION
Oklahoma changed its execution protocols twice this year, leaving State officials with five options for lethal injections, including a new three-drug mixture that was used for the first time Tuesday.
Two of the drugs used carry warnings that they can suppress the respiratory system and the third warns that cardiac trouble can occur at high but non-lethal doses, and lists specific steps to take if a medical patient receives too much of the drug but doesn't die.
- MIDAZOLAM (sedative): Warning labels that accompany packages of midazolam say intravenous use of the drug has been associated with respiratory suppression or respiratory arrest. Monitoring is required in case there is a need to intervene with life-saving medical treatment. Overdoses can result in a slow heart rate, as well.
- VECURONIUM BROMIDE (paralytic): The package labeling warns that a way to give artificial respiration and oxygen therapy should be available while patients are given vercuronium, which is often used to relax muscles for intubation or during surgery. Respiration 'insufficiency' is listed as a possible adverse reaction.
- POTASSIUM CHLORIDE (stops heart): The labels include strong warnings that potassium chloride must be given at a slow, controlled rate when administered for the treatment of a potassium deficiency. At higher doses, such as that used in executions, the drug stops the heart. For higher doses that aren't lethal, medical literature says to discontinue the infusion immediately and use injections of dextrose and insulin at certain rates, absorb excess potassium and engage in dialysis. Respiratory paralysis is also possible. Medical literature at the National Institutes of Health says potassium intoxication can cause cardiac arrest and that EKG abnormalities can illustrate trouble.
Tuesday was the first time Oklahoma used the drug midazolam as the first element in its execution drug combination. Other states have used it before; Florida administers 500 milligrams of midazolam as part of its three-drug combination. Oklahoma used 100 milligrams.
The problems with the execution are likely to fuel more debate about the ability of states to administer lethal injections that meet the U.S. Constitution's requirement they be neither cruel nor unusual punishment.
That question has drawn renewed attention from defense attorneys and death penalty opponents in recent months, as several states scrambled to find new sources of execution drugs because drugmakers that oppose capital punishment - many based in Europe - have stopped selling to prisons and corrections departments.
Defense attorneys have unsuccessfully challenged several states' policies of shielding the identities of the new sources of their execution drugs. Missouri and Texas, like Oklahoma, have both refused to reveal their sources, but both of those states have since successfully carried out executions with their new supplies.
Killer's 40mins of Agony as Execution goes Wrong
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