Execution of Clayton Lockett

Execution of Clayton Lockett

On Tuesday (April 29), convicted murderer Clayton Lockett was executed by the state of Oklahoma, but not before he convulsed on the gurney, then raised his head and said, "Something's wrong." The execution was halted, but Lockett was later pronounced dead of a heart attack by prison officials.

Lockett's botched execution is shining a harsh light on capital punishment, which has a long and macabre history.

Here is the story in full

The death of Clayton Derrell Lockett occurred on April 29, 2014, when he suffered a heart attack during an execution by lethal injection in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Lockett, aged 38, was convicted in 2000 of murder, rape, and kidnapping

Lockett was administered an untested mixture of drugs that had not previously been used for executions in the United States. Although the execution was stopped, Lockett died 43 minutes after being sedated. He writhed, groaned, convulsed, and spoke during the process and attempted to rise from the execution table fourteen minutes into the procedure, despite having been declared unconscious.

Lockett's failed execution occurred at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, on April 29, 2014, after he had been tasered by staff and attempted to cut himself earlier that day. A paramedic tried twice to put an IV needle into Lockett's left arm but failed. She then tried to insert the needle into his brachial vein in his biceps but also failed. She asked for help from a doctor in attendance, Johnny Zellmer, who tried three times to get the IV into the jugular vein in Lockett's neck but failed. He then tried the subclavian vein adjacent to Lockett's collar bone but failed again. The paramedic tried two veins in the left foot but failed. Zellmer then inserted the needle into the femoral vein in the groin.

The execution began at 6:23 p.m. CDT, when the first drug midazolam (sedative), was administered. After Lockett was declared unconscious at 6:33 p.m., the next two drugs, vecuronium bromide (paralytic) and potassium chloride (to stop the heart beating), were injected. However, at 6:36 p.m., three minutes after being declared unconscious, Lockett started to struggle violently and was able to raise his head and speak, saying "Oh, man", "I'm not..." and according to some sources "something's wrong".

 He attempted to rise from the table at 6:37 p.m. and loudly exhaled. A lawyer for Lockett reportedly said, "It looked like torture."  Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton said one of the doctors present stopped the execution when it became clear Lockett had a "vein failure". The execution was halted at 6:56 p.m. Lockett was declared dead at 7:06 p.m. due to a heart attack.

A subsequent investigation found that all three drugs had been properly administered to Lockett. However, it was a cloth, which had been placed over Lockett's groin to prevent witnesses from viewing the area, that had stopped staff from spotting that the IV connection in the groin had failed because of the collapsed vein.

 After an attending doctor stated that Lockett had not received enough of the drugs to cause death and there were not enough of the drugs left to attempt to continue, the execution was halted after 33 minutes. Prison officials reportedly discussed taking Lockett to a hospital before he died of a heart attack. Patton stated "the chemicals did not enter into the offender". The report noted:

The doctor checked the IV and reported the blood vein had collapsed, and the drugs had either absorbed into tissue, leaked out or both. Patton asked if enough drugs had been administered to cause death, to which the doctor replied “no”. The director then asked if another vein was available to complete the execution, and if so, were there enough drugs left. The doctor answered no to both questions.

According to the Department of Corrections, the time for an inmate to be pronounced dead was 6 to 12 minutes in the previous 19 executions before Lockett

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