Eyewitness account: A minute-by-minute look at what happened during Clayton Lockett’s execution

Tulsa World Enterprise Editor Ziva Branstetter was one of 12 media witnesses to attend a botched execution Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. 

And she wrote the gory details of the execution that went awry..

A few notable points. At 5:40 pm, she reported she heard other inmates banging loudly on  their prison cells in a sign of respect for the soon to be state killed.. At 6:28 pm fifty milligrams of midazolam were placed into Lockett’s arms. 6:31 pm: Suffering begins.. 6:36, he mumbles something .. 6:37 is when he begin to buckle and writhe in pain. 6:38, says the word “man” followed by other unintelligible statements. 6:40: Someone notices Lockett is not dying in the fashion he should. 6:50 pm, the execution is ‘stopped.’ 

Branstetter goes on to write:

Patton leaves for about 10 more minutes and reporters at the end of our row begin interviewing Sanderford and defense attorney David Autry, both clearly upset by the turn of events. “They will save him so they can kill him another day,” Autry says.

We are told to leave the viewing chamber and are escorted back to a waiting white prison van. We have to tear the notes out of the spiral notebook and leave it plus the pen behind.  Another van is on the way so I stay behind with reporters from the Associated Press, The Oklahoman, OETA and The Guardian to compare notes. After every execution, it’s important that reporters compare last words and other observations to make sure they have the most accurate version of events possible.  

7:06 p.m. Lockett is pronounced dead in the execution chamber from a heart attack. The news of his death is provided to reporters by Patton during a brief statement at the media center on the prison grounds.  He explains to reporters that prison officials do not know how much of the second and third drugs entered Lockett’s body.

Finally, the word comes: “His vein exploded.”

There are some that point to the botched execution as a reason we should bring back some more barbaric ways of death, such as the guillotine.  But should we? Is it painless as some profess? Quick? A good means to an end? As a reader to Andrew Sullivan wrote in a November 2013 blog post, explaining what a biography of Catherine the Great said, 

[W]as death by guillotine so instantaneous as to be truly painless?  Some believe not.  They argue that because the blade, cutting rapidly through the neck and spinal column, had relatively little impact on the head encasing the brain, there may not have been immediate unconsciousness… Witnesses to guillotining have described blinking eyelids and movements of the eyes, lips, and mouth.  As recently as 1956, anatomists experimenting with the severed heads of guillotined prisoners explained this by saying that what appeared to be a head responding to the sound of its name or to the pain of a pin-prick on the cheek might only have been a random muscle twitch or an automatic reflex action.

The guillotine indeed.

Eyewitness account: A minute-by-minute look at what happened during Clayton Lockett’s execution

Oklahoma stops execution after botching drug delivery; inmate dies

An Oklahoma inmate died Tuesday evening of an apparent heart attack after authorities botched the delivery of drugs and stopped his execution.

A story of when death goes bad.

Oklahoma was set to kill two inmates tonight.. Two for the price of one: But at a hefty cost. Things went south fast..

A purposeful state killing tonight of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett did not go as expected. . This is how CNN reported the developing story:

Convicted murderer Clayton Lockett was sedated and then given the second and third drugs in the protocol, Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton told reporters. “There was some concern at that time that the drugs were not having the effect, so the doctor observed the line and determined that the line had blown,” he said. When asked what he meant by “blown,” Patton said that Lockett’s vein had “exploded.”

"I notified the attorney general’s office, the governor’s office of my intent to stop the execution and requested a stay for 14 days for the second execution scheduled this afternoon," said Patton, referring to the execution of Charles Warner. Lockett later suffered what appeared to be a heart attack and died, the director said.

Immediately, the state’s Governor issued a stay of execution for Charles Warner.

Damage control occurred as the Governor said an investigation into how the state killing went so wrong would be conducted. 

These are certainly not ‘good guys.’ 

Lockett was convicted for a number of crimes, including home invasions and a crime spree that left someone dead. Warner raped and killed a 11-month-old .. But the notion that killing the killers is the age old moral issue which never seems to be solved. The new cocktails that are given death row inmates are controversial.. What is the ‘best’ way for the state to kill someone? 

Certainly Oklahoma’s experience tonight will be a shock heard across the nation.. And perhaps enough to bring back a debate about the death penalty to the forefront.

Ever since I read and watched the GREEN MILE I have been re-though my youthful support of the death penalty. I have come to question its sense and sensibility, and often think we applaud the killing of other humans at our own peril. Regardless of the crimes they did—and they are unspeakable crimes, for sure—it seems we should find a new way to punish. Certainly, a check on daily headlines will prove, the death penalty has done very little to do what its intended consequence was: To reduce crime.

The GREEN MILE movie presented perhaps one of the most disturbingly memorable scenes I have ever seen in a film. It showcased the electric chair’s amazing ability to cause traumatic pain when used the wrong way. In reality, we have come no further. There may not be electrocutions being botched, but instead now we have cocktails gone awry..

The comments thread on the CNN story of tonight’s botched execution says it all. The majority of writers seem happy that the convicted murderer suffered and some even suggested that shooting criminals int he head would be better than the approach taken now. Seemingly forgotten in the verbal battle over the Oklahoma heart attack is this: How a nation treats its most innocent and also most guilty tells a story about that nation. How do we treat our babies? Our pride and joy? (And yes, some would argue even our fetuses..) And how do we treat our rapists, murderers, thieves, and frauds?

How should we?
Should we care that a criminal died tonight? And does it matter how it happened?

Oklahoma stops execution after botching drug delivery; inmate dies