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Tag: botched execution

  • Arizona Botches Execution, Inmate Gasps

    Arizona Botches Execution, Inmate Gasps

    Arizona death row inmate Joseph Wood died nearly two hours after his execution commenced Wednesday, and his attorney said that he gasped for breath for much of that time.

    Wood was convicted of murder in 1989, after killing his estranged girlfriend and her father. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said she was concerned with the amount of time it took for Wood to die, and ordered the Department of Corrections to review their process.

    In a statement, Brewer commented, “One thing is certain, however, inmate Wood died in a lawful manner and by eyewitness and medical accounts he did not suffer. This is in stark comparison to the gruesome, vicious suffering that he inflicted on his two victims – and the lifetime of suffering he has caused their family.”

    Wood’s execution began at 4:52 p.m. ET, and he was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m. ET.

    Wood’s lawyer, Dale Baich, commented, “It took Joseph Wood two hours to die, and he gasped and struggled to breathe for about an hour and 40 minutes. We will renew our efforts to get information about the manufacturer of drugs as well as how Arizona came up with the experimental formula of drugs it used today.”

    Jeanne Brown, a relative of Wood’s victims, doesn’t share the same sympathy or concern as Baich. “I don’t believe he was gasping for air; I don’t believe he was suffering. It sounded to me like was snoring,” Brown said, adding, “You don’t know what excruciating is. What’s excruciating is seeing your dad laying there in a pool of blood, seeing you sister laying there in a pool of blood. This man deserved it. And I shouldn’t really call him a man.”

    The incident in Arizona comes after a similar mishap which occurred in Oklahoma in April. Condemned inmate Clayton Lockett died of a heart attack roughly 20 minutes after waking up during his execution mid-injection, due to faulty equipment. The scheduled execution of a second inmate for the evening was subsequently postponed.

    Baich commented, “Arizona appears to have joined several other states who have been responsible for an entirely preventable horror – a bungled execution.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Oklahoma Governor Holds After Botched Execution

    “If we are to have executions at all, they must not be conducted like hastily thrown together human science experiments.”

    On Tuesday evening, two executions were scheduled to take place in McAlester, Oklahoma: Clayton D. Lockett, who was convicted in 1999 of shooting a teenage girl and watching as two accomplices buried her alive, and Charles F. Warner, who was convicted in 1997 of raping and murdering a toddler.

    During the first procedure, the administrating doctor announced that “the line has blown” and the drugs were no longer flowing into Lockett’s vein. This came after Lockett violently convulsed and tried to lift his head, although the doctor declared him unconscious just 14 minutes earlier.

    Prison officials immediately halted the execution, but Lockett continued to convulse and twitch until he died from a heart attack 30 minutes later.

    Witnesses, who were quickly shielded from the scene when officials pulled a curtain after the mistake, described it as chaotic and unsettling.

    “This was botched, and it was difficult to watch,” said David Autry, one of Mr. Lockett’s lawyers.

    Dean Sanderford, another lawyer for Mr. Lockett, said, “It looked like torture.”

    Warner, the second inmate, was granted a 14-day stay of execution while governor Mary Fallin calls for a “full review” of the state’s execution procedures.

    “Last night’s botched execution was nothing less than state-sanctioned torture,” said Antonio Ginatta, U.S. advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

    Governor Fallin still stands by her state’s decision.

    “I believe the death penalty is an appropriate response and punishment to those who commit heinous crimes against their fellow men and women,” she said. “However, I also believe the state needs to be certain of its protocols and its procedures for executions and that they work.”

    But questions still remain concerning the 3-drug cocktail used in Oklahoma’s lethal injection procedure. Lawyers for both Lockett and Warner have previously contended that the serum goes against the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    Recently, after running out of its usual lethal injection drug, Oklahoma had a new batch sourced from a pharmacy, declining to give its name. This isn’t he first time an execution was botched with this new combination, either. At the first of the year in Ohio, the first inmate injected with this particular serum appeared to suffocate to death.

    Although the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear any cases from states regarding the legality of lethal injection drugs from secret sources, the New York Times states that Tuesday’s Oklahoma case could indeed help get the controversial issue before the court.

    Governor Fallin has announced that she will extend Warner’s 14-day stay of execution if the independent review into the case is not completed by that time.

    Image via Youtube

  • Oklahoma Botches Execution, Postpones Another

    An Oklahoma death row prisoner died of a heart attack roughly 20 minutes after waking up during his execution mid-injection, due to faulty equipment. The scheduled execution of a second inmate for the evening was subsequently postponed.

    Corrections Director Robert Patton stopped the delivery of the three drug combination used in Oklahoma, after realizing inmate Clayton Lockett had regained consciousness after being sedated at the start of his execution. Patton attributed the botched procedure to a vein failure which prevented all three chemicals from efficiently entering Lockett’s system.

    An eyewitness described the scene – Lockett grimaced and tensed his body several times over a three minute period before the execution was shielded from the press. After being declared unconscious ten 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.”

    Those against the death penalty took to Twitter:

    Lockett, 38, convicted of shooting 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman and having her buried alive in 1999, died of cardiac arrest 43 minutes after the first drug was administered. The press was shielded from the event after Lockett woke up and began speaking, 16 minutes after the execution began. Lockett died roughly 20 minutes later. “It was extremely difficult to watch,” Lockett’s attorney, David Autry, said afterward.

    A second death row inmate, Charles Warner, was scheduled to be executed at 8 p.m. Tuesday evening, which will be rescheduled due to the equipment error. Warner, 46, was convicted of raping and killing an 11-month-old in 1997.

    There has been some controversy in Oklahoma regarding a policy to not reveal the source of the drugs used for lethal injections.

    Both Lockett and Warner had sued the state for failing to disclose details regarding the source of the execution drugs, which resulted in the Supreme Court issuing a stay of execution for Lockett. This stay was eventually revoked, then replaced by another extension issued by Governor Mary Fallin, which is the reason why Lockett and Warner ended up being scheduled to die on the same day.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons