By Rick Green
The Oklahoman
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The state medical examiner’s office conducted an autopsy Wednesday on Clayton Lockett, the convicted killer who died Tuesday night of an apparent heart attack after a botched execution by injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
This was one of two executions planned for Tuesday night at the penitentiary. The second condemned man, Charles Warner, was given a two-week stay of execution after the problems with Lockett.
State Corrections Department officials said a complication occurred with Lockett’s execution after one of his veins collapsed while he was being given a deadly drug cocktail. They declined to release further details Wednesday.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in response to a question at a briefing that the death penalty, when used, must be carried out humanely.
“And I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard,” he said.
Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, said an autopsy should be able to determine Lockett’s cause of death, including any problem that occurred with the vein, but she noted that toxicology tests to determine drug levels in the blood usually take two to four months. She said this time could be reduced but it is likely to take a month or more in any case.
The autopsy was being performed at the state medical examiner’s office in Tulsa.
Robert Patton, director of the state Corrections Department, called off the execution about 20 minutes after it started when it became clear the lethal injection drugs weren’t working. The condemned man was breathing heavily, writhing, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow. Lockett was declared dead at 7:06 p.m. of an apparent heart attack.
Gov. Mary Fallin said Tuesday night that she issued an executive order delaying Warner’s execution so a full review could be done to determine what went wrong with the Lockett’s execution. She planned to make another statement about the situation at 1:30 p.m.
Madeline Cohen, Warner’s attorney, said Tuesday night that Lockett, 38, was essentially tortured to death and no more executions should be held in Oklahoma until “much more is known about tonight’s failed experiment of an execution.”
Before the execution, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt disputed the notion that the drugs for the execution were experimental.
“Those drugs to be used in the executions of Lockett and Warner — midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride — have been used by other states at other times in the lethal injection process. In court testimony over the use of midazolam in Florida executions, Dr. Mark Dershwitz, a medical doctor, professor of anesthesiology at the University of Massachusetts and a board certified practicing anesthesiologist who holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology, testified that based on his direct experience ‘a 50 mg dose prevented his patients from perceiving the noxious stimuli associated with neurosurgery.’ The state is using twice as much midazolam (100 mg) in the executions of Lockett and Warner.”
Tuesday was the first time Oklahoma used the sedative midazolam as the first element in its execution drug combination. There has been difficulty in getting execution drugs as some pharmaceutical companies have been refused to provide them to states to conduct lethal injections.
Oklahoma law requires that all executions be accomplished through lethal injection unless this method is found unconstitutional, in which case executions could be done by electric chair, and if that was found unconstitutional, a firing squad could be used.
The law could be changed through legislation.
Rep. Aaron Stiles, R-Norman, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the panel may now look into giving the Corrections Department more latitude in conducting executions and the possibility of options other than lethal injection, such as electrocution or firing squad.
“This has raised enough issues that we should definitely look at not only giving the Department of Correction more options, but maybe giving the defendant options. We could say ‘Here are your three choices. Choose which one you think is the best.’
“It would be difficult to complain if he chooses the option.”
The Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, Archbishop of Oklahoma City, said “the brutality of the death penalty disregards human dignity.”
“The execution of Clayton Lockett really highlights the brutality of the death penalty, and I hope it leads us to consider whether we should adopt a moratorium on the death penalty or even abolish it altogether,” he said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma called for a moratorium on state executions.
The Corrections Department will not release any medical details about Lockett’s execution until an autopsy and investigation are complete, said spokesman Jerry Massie. Massie also declined to comment on whether or not the same drug combination would be used for Warner’s execution in two weeks.
Lockett was sentenced for the 1999 murder of Stephanie Neiman, 19, in Perry. Neiman and a friend walked in on a home invasion Lockett and two accomplices were committing. Lockett’s friend was raped multiple times by all three men before Lockett shot Neiman and had one of the men bury her alive.
Warner was convicted of the 1997 rape and murder of his then live-in girlfriend’s 11-month-old daughter, Adrianna Waller. Adrianna suffered a skull fracture, broken ribs, and a broken leg.