By C1 Staff
OKLAHOMA CITY — The former warden of an Arizona prison has been hired by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
Tulsa World reports that Lance Hetmer has been hired as special assistant to DOC Director Robert Patton, a newly created position. Hetmer was the warden at Arizona’s Florence Prison complex.
Tulsa World also reports that Hetmer signed off on many documents regarding an execution that used an experimental cocktail of drugs during his time as warden in the Arizona penal system.
On July 23, Joseph Rudolph Wood’s execution took nearly two hours while the inmate snorted and gasped for breath. Wood was injected 15 times.
Records show that the cocktail included midazolam, which was the same drug used in the execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett, whose execution was overseen by Patton.
Hetmer was also present at the execution. A spokesman for the Arizona facility said it was his last significant official duty. He retired on or about July 24.
Patton was a top administrator at the Arizona DOC before he began serving as Oklahoma’s DOC director in February. He served as a warden and deputy warden at several Arizona prisons during his career there.
As special assistant to Oklahoma’s directior, Hetmer could be involved in policies related to executions. Hetmer’s job includes “whatever assignment the director gives him.”
The Arizona DOC has not disclosed which official chose the cocktail for inmate Joseph Wood’s execution.
An investigation into Lockett’s execution is pending with the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, but it’s not the first time Patton has been scrutinized regarding execution procedures.
In 2011, a lawsuit brought by death row inmates had Patton acknowledging that a member of the prison’s execution team lacked qualifications related to IV placement. He said in a disposition that he never checked to determine whether any execution team members had experience placing femoral IVs, a requirement of the Arizona prison system’s protocol.
Patton was division director of operations at the time and was responsible for planning and direction execution-related activities.