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OKLAHOMA GOVERNOR MARY Fallin postponed at the last minute the execution of an inmate who claims he’s innocent, after prison officials said one of the three drugs they had received to carry out the lethal injection didn’t match state guidelines.
The state Department of Corrections reached out immediately to the attorney general’s office once prison officials realized they received the wrong drug for use in Richard Glossip’s execution, according to Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz. Oklahoma’s protocols call for the use of potassium chloride, but the state received potassium acetate instead.
Weintz said the department receives its lethal injection drugs on the day of an execution.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s office advised Fallin and prison officials that the state’s lethal injection guidelines, which had been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, had to be followed, said Pruitt spokesman Aaron Cooper.
“It is unclear why, and extremely frustrating to the attorney general, that the Department of Corrections did not have the correct drugs to carry out the execution,” Cooper said.
Fallin reset Glossip’s execution for November 6, saying it would give the state enough time to determine whether potassium acetate is a suitable substitute, or to find a supply of potassium chloride.
“That’s just crazy,” Glossip said when told of the drug mix-up. “Nobody has really told me anything.”
Dale Baich, an attorney for Glossip, said he was informed in a letter from the attorney general’s office last month that the Department of Corrections had already obtained the potassium chloride and other drugs needed for the execution.
Hours before Glossip was scheduled to be executed September 16 for ordering the 1997 killing of Barry Van Treese, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted a rare two-week reprieve to review his claims of new evidence, including another inmate’s assertion that he overheard Justin Sneed admit to framing Glossip.
Glossip has long claimed he was framed by Sneed, a motel handyman who admitted to fatally beating Van Treese with a baseball bat, but said he did so only after Glossip promised him $10,000. Sneed, who is serving a life sentence, was the state’s key witness against Glossip in two separate trials.
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The death penalty is cruel, inhumane, debasing of all those involved, demunanising and not infrequently applied to innocent people. Incompetent legal representation is a factor in many cases.
The type of injection is not the story here. This man is going to be executed even though he has not been found guilty of killing anyone while the actual murderer, a junkie, serves a long jail sentence. The whole thing stinks
It’s a common enough situation in the states. Only this week a woman was put to death over the murder of her husband. While she didn’t pull the trigger a hit man that she hired did. They were both caught and he got life in prison without parole in return for his testimony she got death.
John. The woman you’re talking about got the death penalty because she went to trail and plead not guilty. The actual killer was her lover and he plead guilty to the charge and so got life in prison. F**ked up alright but Murica F**k ya
I would prefer a bullet in the back of the head, than these cocktails of drugs.
Then again, I’d prefer to live.
Apparently the attorney general is ‘very frustrated’. poor wee dote. I’d say the condemned isn’t exactly in great form either
This is not justice, this is torture
“Department of Corrections”? How ironic!
Don’t they have guns?Just shoot him, it’ll save time and money.
Undoubtedly, many people would be only too eager and excited to kill the man, regardless of his guilt or innocence. Some people have an atavistic streak and have a deep desire to kill another human being. Fortunately, there are not many of these people.
As eager and atavistic as he was.
Can those of you who are for the death penalty look up the science podcast from newstalk. Only in 50% of cases has enough anaesthetic been administered to the person but because of the second injection paralysing them we could not see or know the agony they go through after the third injection!
This is easily fixed: for example, general anaesthetics administered in hospital theatres are extremely successful and predictable when given in safe doses, never mind overdoses.
Bizarrely, in the US, there is an appetite for a painful and uncomfortable death. For the life of me, I have no idea why…
That’s true and i have read that the executioner in one well known case last year put the phenobarbital not into his vein but through it so it didn’t knock him out. It went around his body slower so when the next one was administered he started to get paralysed and felt it all. I mean you wouldn’t do this to a dog in distress let alone a human being.
These people should be used for drug testing instead of animals. Especially ones in for sex crimes against children. Make use of them.
They are prison officers not doctors. Just stop the death penalty why are we they so focussed on retribution?
“Wrong” lethal injection? If it kills you, how can it be “wrong”. Maybe the manner in which you die might be different, but if its lethal it’s still gonna kill you.
If it botched your going to die slowly and painfully.
While I’m against the death penalty. This idea of sending wrong drugs is odd. Will it kill me yes then who cares what they inject him with
Not if wrong dose or drug,40mins of agony,
http://www.thejournal.ie/us-execution-botched-1440286-Apr2014/
He looks like the actor from ” law abiding citizen ” ironically enough.
What none of them are saying was that every execution by lethal injection the US carried out was illegal because the drugs where obtained under false pretences.
An argument could be made for denial of civil rights leading to death under the colour of law, a crime that ironically carries the death penalty.
have your say