Drugs, not heart attack, killed inmate in botched execution

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma death row inmate who writhed, moaned and clenched his teeth before he was pronounced dead about 43 minutes after his execution began succumbed to the lethal drugs he was administered, not a heart attack, after the state's prisons chief halted efforts to kill him, an autopsy report released Thursday says.

Department of Corrections director Robert Patton had said inmate Clayton Lockett died from a heart attack several minutes after he ordered the execution stopped. But an independent autopsy performed for the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety says all three execution drugs Lockett was administered were found throughout his system.

The report, performed by the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas, concluded the cause of death was "judicial execution by lethal injection." But it does not answer why the execution took so long and why Lockett writhed on the gurney.

Lockett's attorney, David Autry of Oklahoma City, did not return a call seeking comment. But Dale Baich of the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix, who represents a group of Oklahoma death row prisoners who commissioned an independent autopsy of Lockett, said more information is needed.

"What this initial autopsy report does not appear to answer is what went wrong during Mr. Lockett's execution, which took over 45 minutes, with witnesses reporting he writhed and gasped in pain," Baich said in a statement.

The gurney in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary is shown in McAlester, Oklahoma. (Associated Press file)

Oklahoma put executions on hold after Lockett gasped and writhed against his restraints for several minutes after his April 29 execution began. Lockett was poked a dozen or so times as medical technicians tried to find a vein before settling on one at his groin.

Officials at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester have said Lockett's vein collapsed during the lethal injection.

Gov. Mary Fallin has ordered public safety officials to review the events surrounding Lockett's death, including execution protocols that were changed in the weeks before Lockett's execution. The state Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to not schedule executions for six months. Three are set for mid-November and early December.

A spokesman for Fallin, Alex Weintz, said the autopsy report will be part of the review.

"We suspect they are in the final stages of that process," Weintz said.

He said Fallin still supports use of the death penalty despite the problems with Lockett's execution.

"But we want our executions to be successful," Weintz said. "She has asked DPS to make recommendations on what possible updates to the protocols we can pursue."

The autopsy report details Lockett's cause of death and does not include recommendations about the state's execution protocols.

A spokesman for the Corrections Department, Jerry Massie, said prison officials will have no comment until after public safety officials release their findings and recommendations.

Oklahoma and other death penalty states have encountered problems in recent years obtaining lethal injection chemicals after major drugmakers stopped selling them for use in executions. That has forced states to find alternative drugs, purchased mostly from loosely regulated compounding pharmacies. Many states refuse to name suppliers and offer no details about how the drugs are tested or how executioners are trained.

In Lockett's execution, Oklahoma used the sedative midazolam for the first time. The drug was also used in lengthy attempts to execute an Ohio inmate in January and an Arizona prisoner last month. Each time, witnesses said the inmates appeared to gasp for air moments after their executions began and continued to labor for air before being pronounced dead.

Patton, the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, called for a complete "review/revision" to the execution protocols in Oklahoma following the Lockett execution, and said he was willing to adopt other states' protocols to "ensure the Oklahoma protocol adopts proven standards."

Among his concerns were that the state's current protocol puts all the responsibility and decision-making in the hands of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary warden, who is responsible for overseeing executions. Patton, who came to Oklahoma from the Arizona Department of Corrections, didn't specifically mention the drug midazolam or any other formula approved for use in the Oklahoma death chamber.

Midazolam is part of a three-drug and a two-drug protocol in Oklahoma. Lockett's execution used a three-drug protocol -- midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The state also has a protocol that would use midazolam with hydromorphone, the same combination used in the problematic executions in Ohio and Arizona this year.

Toxicology reports said all three lethal drugs were found in Lockett's system -- the sedative in brain tissue and elsewhere and the other drugs in his blood.

In June, a lawsuit filed against Patton and the DOC on behalf of 21 Oklahoma death row inmates alleged that prison officials are experimenting on death row inmates and violating the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment by tinkering with Oklahoma's lethal injection procedures. The state responded that those claims are false.