Oklahoma Stays Second Execution After First Is Botched
Clayton Lockett didn’t die because of a well-executed execution. He died of a heart attack because of a botched one. Torture-lovers don’t care that someone who committed heinous crimes writhes and gasps and dies a horrible death. But the death penalty, itself, is wrong. How is it that those who don’t trust the government, nevertheless, trust the government to kill the right people? Sometimes they kill the wrong people, and can’t even get that right.
The administering doctor intervened and discovered that “the line had blown,” said the director of corrections, Robert Patton, meaning that drugs were no longer flowing into Mr. Lockett’s vein.
At 7:06 p.m., Mr. Patton said, Mr. Lockett died in the execution chamber, of a heart attack.
Mr. Patton said the governor had agreed to his request for a stay of 14 days in the second execution scheduled for Tuesday night, that of Charles F. Warner.
It was a chaotic and disastrous step in Oklahoma’s long effort to execute the two men, overcoming their objections that the state would not disclose the source of the drugs being used in a newly tried combination.
How about, let’s stop all executions until the government learns how to kill people properly.
