Execution of Death Row Inmate Clayton Lockett

Execution of Death Row Inmate Clayton Lockett

On April 28th Oklahoma attempted to carry out the execution of condemed death row inmate, Clayton Lockett.  The state was utilizing untested drugs in an untested protocol to execute Lockett.

Clayton Lockett, 38, was declared unconscious 10 minutes after the first of three drugs in the state’s new lethal injection combination was administered.  But it was not the truth.

Clayton Lockett then writhed, clenched his teeth and  struggled against the restraints strapping him down  to a gurney when prison officials attempted to halt his execution.

Lokkett died nearly 40 excruciating minutes later of a heart attack.

Lockett had sued the state for refusing to disclose details about the execution drugs, including where Oklahoma obtained them.

The case prompted calls for the impeachment of state Supreme Court justices after the court issued a rare stay of execution.

The high court later dissolved its stay and dismissed the claim that a person  condemned to death was  entitled to know that the drugs the state was going to use had been obtained legally.

Questions about how executions are going to be carried out  legally have drawn attention in recent months, as drug makers based in Europe — all based in countries that do not allow capital punishment — have refused to  sell drugs utilized for what most of the western industrialized world condemns as state sponsored murder.

States are now resorting to black market and illegal sources for their drug supplies to execute citizens condemned to death.

So in order to enforce the law, the states are violating the law.

Odd isn’t it?

Republican Gov. Mary Fallin ordered a 14-day stay of execution for Charles Warner who was scheduled to die two hours after Lockett.The 46-year-old Warner, was convicted of raping and killing his roommate’s 11-month-old daughter in 1997. He continues to maintain his innocence.

 She also ordered the state’s Department of Corrections to conduct a “full review of Oklahoma’s execution procedures to determine what happened and why during this evening’s execution.”