Oklahoma halted its first double execution in 80 years when the first inmate, Clayton Lockett, began writhing and seizing 10 minutes after the administration of a new three-drug lethal injection cocktail on Tuesday evening.
The combination included Midazolam, to produce loss of consciousness, pancuronium bromide, to paralyze skeletal striated muscles, including the diaphragm and the rest of the respiratory muscles and lastly, potassium chloride, to stop the heart.
The first drug was administered at 6:23 p.m., 10 minutes later, a doctor declared Lockett to be unconscious and administered the next two drugs. However, at that point, witnesses recounted that Lockett twitched and started mumbling. At 6:37 p.m., Lockett was seen writhing and seizing and died of a heart attack at 7:06 p.m.
According to Oklahoma’s department of corrections, Lockett experienced a vein failure and lacking proper sedation, the next two drugs likely caused agonizing suffocation and pain.
Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin has delayed the execution of Charles Warner for 14 days to allow the department of corrections to conduct a thorough review of the execution procedure to determine the exact cause of Lockett’s death.
Lockett was convicted of shooting a 19-year-old girl with a sawed-off shotgun and watched her get buried alive in 1999. The second inmate, Charles Warner, was convicted of raping and killing his roommate’s 11-month-old daughter in 1997. Warner was scheduled for the lethal injection two hours after Lockett.
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