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THE IV USED to administer a lethal injection to a US death row inmate during a recent botched execution was badly placed and not properly monitored, an inquiry has found.
Clayton Lockett, a convicted murderer and rapist, was put to death in Oklahoma on 29 April using an untested three-drug protocol in a process that took 43 minutes — well over the expected time of a little over 10 minutes.
Authorities said Lockett, who was seen writhing in pain, bucking off the gurney and mumbling unintelligibly, ultimately died of a massive heart attack.
The incident drew widespread condemnation and led the state to temporarily halt executions and order an investigation.
According to a 32-page report made public by the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, “the physician and paramedic attempted IV placement access in multiple locations and were unsuccessful” before doing so in the right groin area and administering the anesthetic Midazolam followed by the two other drugs.
The physician noticed the IV failure some 20 minutes later when the inmate “began to move and make sounds on the execution table.”
While trying in vain to insert the IV into the femoral artery and elsewhere,” the physician made the observation that the drugs appeared to be absorbing into Lockett’s tissue.”
His heart stopped shortly after the execution was interrupted and he was pronounced dead at 7:06 pm, 43 minutes after the first injection at 6:23 pm, the report said.
“This investigation concluded the viability of the IV access point was the single greatest factor that contributed to the difficulty in administering the execution drugs,” the investigators said.However, “the IV failure complicated the ability to determine the effectiveness of the drugs,” they added.
The investigators listed a series of recommendations, including the creation of a “formal and continuing training program for execution personnel.”
Lawyers for death row inmates regularly criticise what they see as the lack of qualifications of those administering lethal injections in the 32 US states that allow capital punishment.
The report calls for executions not to be scheduled within seven calendar days of each other, highlighting that it was “apparent the stress level” at the facility in question was elevated because two executions were scheduled for 29 April — a first since 2000.
In the end, the second one was called off due to what happened with Lockett.
The report also recommends that an IV catheter insertion point or points “should remain visible during all phases of the execution and continuously observed by a person with proper medical training in assessing the ongoing viability of an IV.”
More questions than answers
In a statement, Lockett’s lawyer said “the state’s internal investigation raises more questions than it answers.”
“Once the execution was clearly going wrong, it should have been stopped, but it wasn’t,” Dale Baich said.
“Whoever allowed the execution to continue needs to be held accountable,” he added, noting that a pending federal lawsuit now presented the “best chance” to determine what happened.
Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law, said the the challenges with IV access, hindered visibility and inadequately trained personnel were all foreseeable problems in Lockett’s case due to previously botched executions.
“The need for more ‘thorough research and review’ of these procedures has been urged repeatedly over the decades, yet regularly ignored by departments of corrections,” she said in an email.
“Our country’s confidence in states’ abilities to conduct executions properly has reached the lowest point.”
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2 bad for him a rapist and killer
The death penalty is premeditated murder carried out by sadists who are just as bad as the people they are murdering.
It’s like that scene in The Green Mile.
So an executioner carrying out justice is just as bad as a rapist and killer?
The Death Penalty is an insult to civilised thinking.
Not the executioner Philip, the society that allows the practice. And I would say worse than a rapist or a killer, because a rapist or killer could have any one of a variety of psychological or personality disorders motivating them, while premeditated murder by the collective conscience of society can hide behind no such excuses.
@phil hogan, your comment assumes that justice = death penalty. They’re not talking about the executioner carrying out the job obviously. The question that was posed that you misunderstood was whether the death penalty is warranted, ie is that justice
Martin if someone raped and murdered a member of ur family would u feel the same. I’m glad he suffered and I hope he died screaming, he deserved it
Sandra – There is no point arguing with bleeding hearts. They would have let a rapist and murderer free after a few years served, then act shocked after he rapes and murders again
How many complaining about bleeding hearts complained about a journalist being executed?
Truly awful way to go. The only way worse would be to be raped first, then shot twice and then buried alive by your friend who is held at gunpoint.
What right does someone have to be an executioner? It’s the same as if I killed you now! Just because the law says oh it’s my job I am allowed kill you. Cop on. Yes he was a rapist and murderer. Keep him in prison. I feel people like this should be used in clinical trials for drugs etc and make use of them. Someone out of three people killed him. A state judge granted this. Three killers here. Not just one.
That happens in Ireland people get out for rape and murder. Very seldom in America. This is why I am convinced people here agree with the death penalty. If they are locked up for life they are away from people. Taking away a persons freedom and rights is the way to do this not kill them. They suffer more in the long run which is the better option.
What if it was your daughter
His victims prob suffered the same way and some of them prob are. So no sympathy here for the dirty baztard.
You mean like the guys released from death row this week after they were found innocent?
It was unlucky those two were convicted wrongly for so long but this case is more recent where DNA used and is better. He also admitted to doing the crimes I just read on a different news. I feel for the victims not him.
Good for you, being able to choose who’s horrible death to feel bad about. I’d feel bad about any human suffering a bad, prolonged death.
He buried his victim alive did she not suffer even when he was after beating so badly she couldn’t move. And you excepted me to feel sorry that he’s gone? Cop on mate it’s a better place with him not around and the suffering might be justified.
So you know all the facts and you got your revenge, happy days… we’ll all live happily ever after
I like to know the story if I’m going to comment. It’s not revenge for me but I’d call it justice to the victims.
An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind
That’s not actually true. The insightful documentary, Seven Psychopaths demonstrates, in a convincing manner, that the last man would still have one eye.
and he would be king
With a horse !
Jaysus if I had to choose between the two I reckon an ISIS execution might be a better way to go than a US execution. I can’t imagine those ISIS lads making it last 43 minutes.
That’s disgustingly true.
My heart bleeds for him.
No wait, I couldn’t give a shite.
Took him 43 mins to die.
I wouldn’t lose any sleep over him.
Google the b@stards name. He got at least what was coming to him.
If that’d been anyone of mine, he’d be up on the slab writhing for an eternity.
Appalling…if the state really insists on legally murdering people, you’d think they could at least do it quickly and painlessly
Hear Hear .. Two wrongs never made a right.
This should be the new method of execution. Let the animals suffer.
What a horror ! That the alleged leader of the western world should continue with this legalised murder beggars belief.
successful execution
Fair play to the executioner they knew exactly what they were at. Carma can be a bitch.
A lot of pro death penalty people here. What if he was innocent. The majority of Americans and a jury were convinced that the west Memphis 3 were guilty. One was put on death row. What if he was executed and they botched it up. Innocently locked up and then given an execution that was more like a torture session.
http://kfor.com/2014/05/01/letter-from-lockett-cause-im-an-assassin-point-blank/
Yeah, I don’t think he was innocent
Oh cop on do gooder bleeding heart , stop being so soft & weak , he got what he deserved !!
Yeah carlin, be more strong like Mitch, who likes to revel in the fact someone else killed a person in a tortuous manner, while Mitch got to sit at home in his little bubble taking sanctimonious pleasure in his death. Now that’s true strength.
Carlin the mans admission of guilt and DNA sample at the crime mean he wasn’t innocent
We can hope that Sean but the USA justice system doesn’t instil confidence does it?
Silent majority .. He raped and beat a 19 year old woman , then buried her alive … Am I missing something here ?? He should of been hung by the balls & tortured for days . Been buried alive is the most depraved , evil in humane way to die .. If it happened in good auld Ireland , he be up for parole after 14 year .
His suffering wasn’t long enough,he gave up all his rights as a human being in my eyes for he did to that poor girl..no sympathy for him at all,maggot food now.
*karma
haha yes it can!
Ya have to love journal.ie trolls , they are for abortion , a murder of an unborn child who did Nothing to no one , but all against the death penalty for Americas murderers who committed the most evil acts . Kill the innocents but save the evil , god love ye !!
There’s a rather big difference: one is a person, the other a foetus! One can live as an individual human, the other requires a host womb to survive. Kinda big distinction!
Just to let u know that animal you’re defending , buried a 19 year old female alive after raping her , yeah that’s right , she was alive !!
How did you get that from my post? Where do I present any defence of this murderer? Read before you react!
Not that big a distinction liberte, both acts remove the right to life, be it a current or potential life depending how you interpret definitions. And we all require some form of “host” to survive, no man is an island and all that.
Once you’re born you don’t need a host, you may need assistance to survive and that’s the key difference. A woman’s ability to produce children should not be seen as an excuse to view her as a vessel which when impregnated, loses all rights to control of her body. Our current law makes life difficult for those on limited incomes, but for those in a better financial position, they travel to the UK, where many find solace from the sometimes unsympathetic position of Irish Law. Hopefully, the law will be amended in 2015.
Assistance? You’d know you have no kids anyway! For at least the first 6 months of life a child is still essentially a parasite. And you’re assuming the mother’s right to bodily integrity supersedes the unborn’s right to life – bodily integrity, while an important right, is more likely to be found inferior to other rights (see: misuse of drugs act, water fluoridation).
Mitch Connors silly comment
I absolutely state that a pregnant woman’s life is more important than that of a foetus: one is a person capable of independent existence, the other isn’t. A child doesn’t depend on its mother to exist outside the womb, any caring individual can raise a child. There was a time when wet nurses provided milk for newly-born children.
Life? I agree, for more simple reasons – a foetus will die if their mother or “host” dies. Are you only supporting abortion in circumstances where the mother’s life is in immediate danger, or where the mother faces inconvenience as a result of past indiscretions?
Where a woman chooses for whatever reason. I get the sense you’re into point scoring rather than debating. Your tone and tenor indicates a greater interest in foetal tissue than that of a human being. I come on this site to discuss matters of the day, not to enter dialogue with people who are clearly agenda driven.
Not at all, I have no agenda and am more interested in being corrected than being proven right in truth (always better to learn than to be vindicated). However, I just thought the comparison between by the OP between the death penalty & abortion was quite succinct. Ignoring the reality of abortion, under Irish constitutional law the life of the unborn is held in the same regard as all other life, and honestly I think you will find a lot of people in this country who still support that ideological position if we disregard the real life consequences. Your only argument against the spirit of that amendment is that a woman should have the right to bodily integrity, but as Ryan vs AG 1965 (the water fluoridation case) and the realities of the misuse of drugs act illustrate, this right is a long way from primary in the hierarchy of rights. Therefore, comparing the push for liberated abortion given our “bill of rights” to the death penalty is really pretty accurate.
QED
? Beyond your willingness to engage with someone who offers arguments which you’re probably not used to dealing with, what exactly has been demonstrated? You usually offer a QED after a proof, not an opinion.
I agree too .. If a woman’s life is in danger , yes abort the child .. If the lady can’t keep her legs closed on a sat night , it’s sick that she can go just down the road to a local abortion clinic and have her child murdered .
And if the young man can’t keep his dick in a knot he should be castrated? That would at least be consistent Mitch with your bloodlust.
It’s ye that have the bloodlust to kill children .
There seem to be a few botched execution attempts lately, but not once have I felt any sympathy for these murderers and rapists and I think lots of others would feel the same
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Clayton_Lockett that’s what he done. He deserved every bit of that 43 mins in pain. Cause that girl he killed was buried alive!
Not hard to kill someone, the Israelis can do thousands at once.
Interesting that you pick out the Israelis when there are plenty of other nations and groups that murder people in their thousands
@phil hogan again facepalm it’s topical. Simple answer. Interesting point. Case closed
That’s right Sean, because only horrific murder that’s topical is ever relevant to a conversation. Life must be so easy when you live your life caring only about what the media tells you to think about. Must be very peaceful to never have to be distracted by such minor inconveniences as thinking or forming your own opinion.
Yes because in my comment I was advocating, topical news. Ya that’s what I was doing alright, advocating topical news. Ya I re read my comment and that’s what I deducted. What??
Did you really interpret that from my comment go back and re read come on you can do better.
They made a point that Israelis are killing thousands > a point followed saying why did you hone in on that > I highlighted because it was topical that’s why and that it is obvious. Simple valid comment. Simples.
Karma
Should of raped him with the syringe and the injected his murdering @55 No loss,he got off easy
Decapitation is quicker and more humane, cheaper and possibly painless! Hard to make a cock up with a guillotine, but that would be admitting IS is doing it the right way!
@Silver Fox
Do you think IS is doing it the right way?
Ha nice comparison! Funny enough, decapitation was dispensed with as an execution method for humanitarian purposes: apparently the head remains somewhat conscious for about 5 seconds after decapitation. Over 200 years on from the French Revolution and the “civilised” world are torturing people to death for almost an hour!
Silver fox .. You are actually right , guillotine has been proven by scientists to be the most effective and quickest way of death , plus it’s cheap . Taking a head from a body is not very Christian so next best thing is firing squad .
Silent majority , that’s the nervous system reacting ., the man feels no pain at all . It’s a quick death but ugly to watch
Hand each murderer a fluffy cushion before they go in. Maybe it’ll be more human then
Well it was a successful execution….i’m not going to cry over him being he was a rapist and murderer…
Pretty sure the best nurses in America work in state and private hospitals.
Interesting to know that the drugs are administered arterially. That would make it very difficult to locate a catheter.
Why on earth was the drugs attempted to be put in his arteries? Sure that takes amazing highly skilled doctors to find these. Believe me I know!!! This guy was a big man. I am sure his veins were fairly visible and useable. Makes no sense at all why they would do such a thing.
QSIS don’t have a country. They are some sort of created abomination.
That was a reply to something else but i forget now. America is in the same company as Saudi Arabia and China and Iran in terms of executing lads.
Many an innocent have went to the death chamber. Its draconian and barbaric. Justice?.murder is murder.dress it up whichever way u wish
Probably missed the vein on purpose.
No sympathy
What IS do in there own country is their own business and cultural beliefs. Who am I too judge? Foreigners should think twice before venturing to the middle east! Maybe a sword would be a wee bit more tasteful than a hunting knife but my nxt holiday ain’t to Syria!
Why is a successful execution news?
Man he new what was gonna.hit him
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