An Oklahoma Corrections Department report says that before Clayton Lockett’s botched execution, prison officers shocked him with a Taser, found a self-inflicted wound and were forced to put the IV line in his groin.
Prison officers shocked an uncooperative Clayton Lockett with a Taser and found a self-inflicted cut on his arm in the hours before he was brought to the execution chamber, where medical staff had trouble finding a viable place to start an intravenous line to deliver deadly drugs, according to a timeline of the botched lethal injection.
After 51 minutes of trying to find a spot to insert the line in his arms, legs and feet, it was finally placed in his groin, and he was covered by a sheet “to prevent witness viewing of the groin area,” the timeline said.
“Obviously, they didn’t want to show that,” Gov. Mary Fallin said in a brief news conference Thursday to discuss the timeline sent to her by Corrections Department Director Robert Patton.
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| This June 29, 2011 file photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Clayton Lockett. Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Lockett Tuesday, April 29, 2014, after the delivery of a new three-drug combination failed to go as planned.. |
“That is why I asked for a review,” Fallin said. “We don’t know all the answers.”
The problems starting the line and its location hidden under a sheet may prove important in an investigation into why the execution went bad. A physician present at all executions usually is able to easily look at the intravenous lines flowing into exposed arms of the person receiving a lethal injection.
Lockett writhed, grimaced and strained to move his head after the drugs were administered — and at a time when he was supposed to already be unconscious. The execution was called off, but he ended up dying, apparently of a heart attack, 43 minutes after the lethal injection began.
The timeline indicates that the first drug in a three-drug combination was administered at 6:23 p.m. At 6:42 p.m. the shades were lowered in the execution chamber, and two minutes later a doctor looked under the sheet and found the vein taking the deadly drugs had collapsed and “the drugs had either absorbed into tissue, leaked out or both,” the timeline said.
“The warden immediately contacted the director by phone ...,” the timeline said. “The director asked, ‘Is another vein available, and if so, are there enough drugs remaining?’ The doctor responded, ‘no’ to both questions.”
Patton called off the execution at 6:56 p.m., and a doctor pronounced Lockett dead at 7:06 p.m.
Stay given in other case
Fallin gave a two-week stay of execution to Charles Warner, who was supposed to be executed the same night.
Fallin said the stay will remain in effect until an investigation, which is being led by Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Thompson, is completed. She said she has the authority to extend the stay for 60 days but is waiting to see how long the investigation takes before she makes a decision.
Beyond 60 days, the attorney general would have to seek a longer stay from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. Diane Clay, spokeswoman for Attorney General Scott Pruitt, said that, if necessary, he would seek an extension.
Inquiry to continue
The Taser incident occurred when Lockett refused to leave his cell early in the morning for an X-ray that is part of standard procedure before an execution. The cut on his arm did not require stitches.
