Stefanie Faucher
- Tulsa World - Federal judge denies request to halt Oklahoma executions
New York Times - After Botched Execution, Oklahoma Is to Resume Lethal Injections
Associated Press - Judge OKs Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol
Reuters - U.S. judge denies injunction seeking halt to executions in Oklahoma
ThinkProgress - Two States Will Resume Executions, Using The Same Drug From Botched Lethal Injection
The Oklahoman - Federal judge allows Oklahoma executions to move forward
Buzzfeed - Federal Judge Refuses To Keep Oklahoma Executions On Hold
KFOR-TV (OK) - Federal judge announces decision on fate of Oklahoma executions
The Week - Federal judge approves Oklahoma's 3-drug lethal injections
Sputnik International - Oklahoma Resumes Executions via Lethal Injection Following 8-Month Hiatus
News 9 OK - Judge Rules Oklahoma's Execution Cocktail Is Constitutional
Federal judge denies request to halt Oklahoma executions
By ZIVA BRANSTETTER World Enterprise Editor and CARY ASPINWALL World Staff Writer, December 22, 2014
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge has rejected a request by Oklahoma death-row inmates to halt executions in the state, finding that the state’s protocol does not violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot clears the way for four upcoming executions, though the plaintiffs are expected to take their case to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In making his ruling, Friot found that the plaintiffs, 21 death-row inmates, failed to prove that the state’s use of a new lethal drug, midazolam, presents a constitutionally unacceptable risk of pain and suffering during executions. That is the standard set up by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2008 ruling upholding lethal injection.
Friot said the inmates failed to establish that the state’s revised protocol presents a risk that is “sure or very likely to cause illness or suffering.” DOC Director Robert Patton said the state “will now proceed with the guidelines set forth in the policy and protocol in preparation for the upcoming executions.” Patton declined to answer questions after the ruling, citing ongoing litigation.
The inmates’ lawsuit asked Friot to rule that the April 29 execution of inmate Clayton Lockett was unconstitutional. Lockett began speaking and trying to rise up from the gurney after a doctor declared him unconscious. Witnesses watched him writhe and mumble for three minutes before blinds in the execution chamber were closed.
Patton ordered the execution halted, and Lockett died on the gurney 43 minutes after the process began while Gov. Mary Fallin was attempting to grant a stay, testimony indicated. Despite a policy calling for emergency measures in such situations, prison officials and the doctor took none.
Friot said he sensed that “the experience of the Lockett execution was, in some ways, repugnant to Warden (Anita) Trammell and she does not want a mishap like this to occur again.”
Friot’s ruling came after a three-day hearing last week in Oklahoma’s Western District of federal court.
Attorneys for the state maintained that midazolam has been found constitutional in Florida, where it has been used in 11 executions as the initial substance in a three-drug cocktail.
The state’s attorneys say those executions were without incident. However, plaintiffs’ attorneys noted that the second drug is a paralytic, which would prevent inmates from indicating they are in pain.
Midazolam was used in an Ohio execution that took 53 minutes and an Arizona execution that lasted nearly two hours.
Lockett was sentenced to death for the murder of 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman of Perry, who was shot and left for dead in a ditch by Lockett and two accomplices in 1999.
A second inmate who was scheduled to be executed on April 29, Charles Warner, is now set to die Jan. 15. Executions are also set for Richard Glossip on Jan. 29; John Marion Grant on Feb. 19; and Benjamin Cole on March 5.
Dale Baich, one of several attorneys who represented the plaintiffs, said in an email that the plaintiffs planned to appeal Friot’s ruling to the 10th Circuit.
“There are several reasons for serious concerns about Oklahoma’s ability to carry out executions that comply with the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment,” Baich said.
“Our primary concern is the use of midazolam, a drug that is inappropriate for use in executions because it does not relieve pain and does not maintain prisoners at an adequate level of anesthesia.”
In making his findings of fact, Friot found credible the statements of witnesses who heard Lockett saying “something’s wrong” and “this sh— is f—ing with my mind.” The judge criticized the execution team’s failure to notice a large bulge near Lockett’s femoral IV, indicating the drugs were not going into his bloodstream.
An autopsy found that Lockett had levels of all three lethal drugs in his system, including potassium chloride. The Supreme Court has said it is “uncontested” that inmates would feel pain if they received the second and third drugs without being anesthetized by the initial drug.
“By all accounts potassium chloride will cause an individual extreme pain. … What is not clear by the evidence is the extent to which that occurred,” Friot said.
In making his ruling, Friot found the state’s new execution protocol, approved Sept. 30, to be “facially constitutional” when measured by the Supreme Court’s standard. He said the protocol requires two IV sites, confirmation of a viable IV site and monitoring of the offender throughout the process.
He noted that opposition to the death penalty had resulted in more reliable drugs, pentobarbital and sodium thiopental, being unavailable to Oklahoma and other states.
Friot also noted that the state has “a significant interest in meting out a sentence of death” on behalf of the victims.
“An injunction would not be in the public interest. … Only with real finality can the victims of crime move forward knowing that a sentence will be carried out,” Friot said.
Testimony during the three-day hearing pulled back the curtain on legal maneuvering and political pressure leading up to the April 29 execution. A former DOC general counsel testified that political pressure played a key role in the rush to find a new execution drug.
“There were calls from the Governor’s Office,” said Michael Oakley, former general counsel for the DOC. “We would get word from the Attorney General’s Office that we better hurry up and do something.” Midazolam was chosen in the five days after the state reported to the Court of Criminal Appeals on March 17 that it couldn’t obtain either of the drugs used previously to render inmates unconscious — pentobarbital and sodium thiopental. A revised execution policy allowing the use of midazolam was in place by March 21, Oakley confirmed in court.
Much of the testimony centered on documents and interviews that were part of the state’s official investigation into Lockett’s death, most of which have not been released to the public. Attorneys for the state have designated them confidential and have not complied with a request by the Tulsa World in September for copies under the Open Records Act. Large portions of some transcripts shown in court have been redacted.
The World and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press sued Fallin and DPS on Monday, alleging the state has not complied with the Open Records Act in continuing to withhold the transcripts as well as emails related to the execution.
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After Botched Execution, Oklahoma Is to Resume Lethal Injections
By ERIK ECKHOLM, DEC. 22, 2014
A federal judge in Oklahoma City on Monday said that the state can resume executing prisoners this winter, rejecting the argument by some medical experts that using the same sedative involved in the bungled execution of Clayton D. Lockett in April amounted to an illegal experiment on human subjects.
Judge Stephen P. Friot of Federal District Court, ruling against condemned prisoners who sought to delay new executions, said that lethal injection was more humane than historical methods like hanging, and that since the sedative in question, midazolam, had been successfully used in a dozen executions elsewhere, it should not be considered new or experimental.
“Federal courts should not sit as a board of inquiry as to best practices,” Judge Friot said, adding, “The plaintiffs have failed to present a known and available alternative.” An occasional isolated episode does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, he said.
Also Monday, in a separate ruling on another prolonged execution by lethal injection, a report commissioned by corrections officials in Arizona said the killing of Joseph Wood in July had been conducted properly. Mr. Wood appeared to gasp for nearly two hours before dying, but the report concluded that he was unconscious during that time and did not feel pain.
The unusually protracted and, in the view of many witnesses, agonizing executions in the two states led to new questions about the reliability of lethal injection and whether it can be performed humanely. These states and others have also been forced to try new drugs and combinations as manufacturers have refused to supply the barbiturates traditionally used in lethal injections.
Dale A. Baich, a lawyer for the Oklahoma prisoners, said they would appeal Judge Friot’s decision. “We are still concerned about Oklahoma’s ability to carry out executions humanely using midazolam,” Mr. Baich said.
Mr. Lockett visibly gasped and writhed during a procedure that took 43 minutes, rather than the expected 15 minutes, after a doctor failed to insert the intravenous line properly.
Lawyers for the Oklahoma prisoners said that even when administered properly, midazolam, the sedative used in a three-drug sequence, cannot reliably protect against excruciating pain when the second two drugs are injected, and they point to other unusually prolonged executions this year involving midazolam in Arizona and Ohio.
But Oklahoma officials noted that Florida has conducted numerous executions using midazolam without evidence of problems or suffering.
The Arizona report, by consultants hired by the State Department of Corrections, cited the Pima County medical examiner’s statement that Mr. Wood’s “gasps, snorting and body reflexes are the normal bodily responses to dying, even in someone highly sedated.”
Arizona used midazolam in a different combination from Oklahoma, pairing it with the opiate hydromorphone. Medical experts cited in the report said they could not determine why it took so long for Mr. Wood to die.
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
Still, Arizona’s director of corrections, Charles L. Ryan, said Monday that the state would abandon that two-drug protocol. The state will continue to search for supplies of the barbiturates of choice, pentobarbital or sodium thiopental, Mr. Ryan said. But if they remain unavailable, Arizona will use midazolam in the same three-drug regimen planned in Oklahoma, with the sedative followed by a paralyzing agent and a caustic heart-stopping drug.
Oklahoma has had a moratorium on executions since April 29, when the lethal injection of Mr. Lockett went awry. Now, saying that improved procedures are in place and that they will boost the dosage of midazolam, they plan to execute four men in three months, starting with Charles F. Warner on Jan. 15.
In the case of Mr. Lockett, after a medical technician repeatedly failed to place a line in a vein, the attending doctor tried to insert a needle through Mr. Lockett’s groin, to the femoral vein, without an ultrasound machine to guide him and using a shorter needle than is standard. He missed the vein but did not realize it, and the three drugs diffused locally rather than entering the bloodstream.
Oklahoma officials said that in the future they will inject 500 milligrams of midazolam, compared with 100 milligrams given to Mr. Lockett.
But medical experts testifying on behalf of the condemned prisoners last week said that midazolam is inherently unsuited to executions, even if the catheter is properly inserted.
Multiplying the dosage beyond a certain point does not cause more sedation because of a “ceiling effect,” in which the relevant cell receptors are saturated, they said. And the drug can cause a “paradoxical reaction,” restlessness instead of sedation, in certain groups, including “the elderly, people with a history of aggression, impulsivity, alcohol abuse or other psychiatric disorders,” said Dr. David A Lubarsky, chairman of anesthesiology at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
Carol Cole-Frowe contributed reporting from Oklahoma City.
A version of this article appears in print on December 23, 2014, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: After Botched Execution, Oklahoma to Resume Lethal Injections. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
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http://news.yahoo.com/judge-rule-oklahomas-execution-method-161716189.html
Judge OKs Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol\
December 22, 2014
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol is constitutional and the state can proceed with the scheduled executions of four death row inmates early next year, a federal judge ruled on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot denied a request for a preliminary injunction that was requested by a group of Oklahoma death row inmates. The prisoners argued the use of the sedative midazolam as the first drug in a three-drug combination the state administers risks subjecting them to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.
After the ruling, Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton said the state planned to move forward with the execution of Charles Frederick Warner on Jan. 15 and three other lethal injections scheduled through March 5.
"We will now proceed with the guidelines set forth in the policy and protocol in preparation for the upcoming executions," Patton said.
The inmates sued after the April 29 execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhed on the gurney, mumbled and lifted his head during his 43-minute execution that the state tried to halt before it was over. Lockett's execution was the first in Oklahoma using midazolam, which also has been used in problematic executions in Ohio and Arizona.
In Arizona, where a combination of midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone was used during a nearly two-hour execution in July, state officials said Monday they planned to switch to a three-drug combination similar to Oklahoma's.
Prison officials in both Oklahoma and Arizona have said they would prefer to use the barbiturates pentobarbital or sodium thiopental, but both drugs have become difficult for states to obtain for executions.
Attorneys for Oklahoma maintained the problems with Lockett's execution were the result of an improperly set single IV line that wasn't properly monitored during his execution, causing the lethal drugs to be administered locally instead of directly into his blood. The protocol the state adopted after Lockett's execution calls for a five-fold increase in the amount of midazolam used, which is the same amount of the drug used in 11 successful Florida executions.
Patton, who testified during a three-day hearing last week, said he believes Florida's protocol is "humane."
Judge Friot said in his ruling from the bench that he placed "considerable reliance" on the ability of the execution team to have a backup IV line, to constantly monitor the IV lines, and to ensure that an inmate is unconscious before the second and third drugs are administered.
In addition to adopting a new execution protocol, Oklahoma has bought new medical equipment and ordered more training for the execution team. Prison officials say they're prepared for the upcoming executions.
But medical experts called by attorneys for the death row inmates testified that midazolam won't properly anesthetize a person and render the individual unconscious for the second drug, which causes them to suffocate, and a third which would cause a burning pain before stopping the heart.
Dale Baich, one of the attorneys for the Oklahoma death row inmates, said in a statement they plan to appeal Friot's decision.
"As anesthesiologists and other medical experts have detailed, our primary concern is the use of midazolam, a drug that is inappropriate for use in executions because it does not relieve pain and does not maintain prisoners at an adequate level of anesthesia," Baich said. "And because Oklahoma plans to paralyze condemned prisoners after giving them midazolam, it is likely we often will not know if the prisoners were medically and constitutionally anesthetized or if they suffered."
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U.S. judge denies injunction seeking halt to executions in Oklahoma
Monday, December 22, 2014 6:49 p.m. EST
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. district judge on Monday denied an injunction seeking to halt executions in Oklahoma filed by attorneys for death row inmates who argued a troubled lethal injection in the state in April exposed deep flaws in the death chamber protocols.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot wrote that the lawyers failed to show inmates could suffer inhumane harm, adding in a court documents posted online "that entry of a preliminary injunction would not be in the public interest."
The decision allows the state to proceed with four executions scheduled for next year.
The flawed lethal injection of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett led to widespread criticism and caused the state to revamp its procedures.
During Lockett's execution, a doctor and paramedic attempted more than a dozen times to place an IV line, finally landing one in his groin area, a state report said. That line was improperly placed and eventually fell out, spewing lethal injection chemicals and blood in the death chamber.
Lockett may have died in extreme pain due to a problematic lethal injection mix, a medical expert testified last week, saying the sedative midazolam used in the injection cannot achieve the levels of unconsciousness needed for surgical procedures, and is therefore not suitable for executions.
Oklahoma prison officials said their lethal injection mix is humane and appropriate. They told the court they had no intention of changing the combination.
The judge ruled in Oklahoma City that the plaintiffs, 21 death-row inmates, did not prove the state's use of the drug midazolam created an unacceptable risk of pain and suffering during executions.
"We will move forward and continue to fully challenge and expose the lack of safety and efficacy of the lethal injection procedures in Oklahoma," said Dale Baich, one of the attorneys for the inmates.
Several states including Oklahoma have struggled to obtain drugs for executions, while many pharmaceutical companies, mostly in Europe, have imposed sales bans because they object to having medications made for other purposes used in lethal injections.
The states have looked to alter lethal injection cocktails and to keep the suppliers' identities secret.
Attorneys for death row inmates have argued the drugs used in Oklahoma and other states could cause an unnecessarily painful death, which would amount to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
(Additional reporting by Heide Brandes; Editing by Eric Beech and Eric Walsh)
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Two States Will Resume Executions, Using The Same Drug From Botched Lethal Injection
BY NICOLE FLATOW, DECEMBER 23, 2014 AT 9:18 AM
After death row inmates in Oklahoma and Arizona gasped for 43 minutes and 2 hours, respectively, both states put the use of those injection drugs on hold.
But over the past week, and after outcry that these executions could have been cruel and unusual, both states committed to use the same drugs and protocols in the future. In Oklahoma, a federal judge approved that decision late Monday, ruling that it would not stop Oklahoma from moving forward with other executions using the same fast-acting sedative, midozolam, albeit with a new protocol that includes larger doses.
U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot rejected arguments that the state’s executions amounted to human experimentation because of the little-known effects of midozolam in lethal doses.
Midozolam is typically used after, not during surgery, and is not considered a true general anesthetic, because it allows awareness to exist and thus might mean individuals continue to feel pain. Anesthesiologists have called use of the drug “uncharted territory.” “States literally have no idea what they’re doing to these people,” David Waisel, an anesthesiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, told the Wall Street Journal. A Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health analysis after Oklahoma’s botched execution found that using drugs not approved for execution was akin to making death row inmates into human guinea pigs.
Arizona also used the drug in the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood, in which Wood writhed for an unheard-of two hours after injection. But a report out of that state Monday concluded that the execution was conducted properly and that Wood did not feel any pain.
The problem in both states is that the process is cloaked in secrecy. Oklahoma is one of a number of states that have turned to small-batch drugs made in what is known as compounding pharmacies, facilities not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
States have protected the names of these facilities from public disclosure, so that neither the public nor death row inmates can independently determine whether these executions are cruel and unusual.
States are turning to these facilities because of a lack of other alternatives. And for Judge Friot, that was a good enough reason as any to allow them to keep doing it. “The plaintiffs have failed to present a known and available alternative,” Friot said after his ruling, according to the New York Times. He added that courts could not “sit as a board of inquiry as to best practices.”
Indeed, states began using these compounding pharmacies because international opposition to the death penalty has stopped major pharmaceutical companies from providing drugs for executions. States have also turned to alternative methods that had fallen out of favor, including gas chambers, firing squads, and the electric chair.
The medical community’s opposition to the death penalty has also exacerbated the potential for error, because many major associations prohibit medical professionals from participating in executions. An autopsy of Clayton Lockett’s botched Oklahoma execution found that the biggest problem may have been human error by the person who inserted the needle.
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http://newsok.com/federal-judge-allows-oklahoma-executions-to-move-forward/article/5378383
Federal judge allows Oklahoma executions to move forward
A federal judge ruled Monday that attorneys representing 21 death row inmates failed to show the execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett in April was evidence that Oklahoma’s execution process runs a substantial risk of being cruel and unusual punishment.
By Graham Lee Brewer, December 22, 2014
A federal judge Monday declined to stop a series of upcoming executions in Oklahoma, allowing the state to use the same drug combination it did in the April execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett.
In a ruling from the bench Monday, U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot denied a request from 21 death row inmates asking the court to bar the state from carrying out their lethal injections in a manner they claim presents a high risk for being cruel and unusual.
Friot ruled that the inmates and their counsel failed to show the state’s new execution protocol, which was revised in the wake of Lockett’s execution, presented a risk for either pain and suffering or a lingering death.
The first of the three drugs administered to Lockett during his execution, midazolam, was the focus of much of the hearings in the case, which took place last week. Lockett was injected with 100 milligrams of the sedative, a dosage never before used in the U.S., as his 43-minute execution began. Through expert testimony on its uses, plaintiffs’ attorneys argued midazolam does not properly sedate or anesthetize inmates, as evidenced by Lockett’s lengthy and problematic execution.
Midazolam also has been used in other controversial executions, including the two-hour-long lethal injection of Joseph R. Wood III in Arizona.
Florida currently uses 500 milligrams of the drug, the same amount Oklahoma’s new protocol calls for, and has executed 11 inmates using that dosage. A court in Florida has upheld the method as constitutional.
After the ruling, Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton said the state plans to stay on schedule with the execution of Charles Frederick Warner on Jan. 15. and three other lethal injection scheduled for the following months.
“We will now proceed with the guidelines set forth in the policy and protocol in preparation for the upcoming executions,” Patton said.
Doctors’ testimony
Last week, two doctors hired by the inmates’ attorneys, explained to the court that midazolam, a benzodiazepine, reaches a point where its effects plateau, no matter how much of the drug is given.
Dr. Joseph Cohen, a pathologist who autopsied Lockett’s body, testified that midazolam failed to properly sedate Lockett and they believe he felt significant pain when the other two drugs in the lethal cocktail, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride, hit his muscle tissue.
Dr. David Lubarsky testified last week the vecuronium bromide also would have caused Lockett’s respiratory system to stop.
“I believe he suffered upon injection, and the progressive suffocation due to the onset of paralysis would be nothing short of agonizing,” Lubarsky said Wednesday.
The state contended throughout the hearings that midazolam was an adequate drug for use in lethal injection, but Assistant Attorney General John Hadden conceded the state would prefer to use a more reliable drug, such as the barbiturates pentobarbital or sodium thiopental.
Those drugs have become scarce recently, as their manufacturers have stopped sales of the drugs for use in capital punishment and pharmacies who can mix them have backed away from involvement in executions due to public pressure.
About the ruling
While Friot’s ruling allows the state to move forward with its scheduled executions, he did note that Lockett’s execution was “ineptly performed in some way,” referring to lack of training, equipment, and contingency plans that was evidenced by a state investigation into the procedure.
That investigation found an improperly placed IV in Lockett’s groin to be the most significant factor leading to problems during the execution.
Friot also said that expert testimony leads him to believe Lockett felt some pain, but there was not sufficient evidence to halt future executions.
“Lockett may well have experienced significant pain, but any such conclusion is laden with speculation,” Friot said.
He said changes to execution protocol, such as the addition of new training and the revision of the death chambers, show the state has made the necessary changes to discredit claims the process will again create a problematic situation, as it did in Lockett’s case.
Midazolam does not properly induce sedation or act as a anesthetic, said Dale Baich, one of the public defenders representing the inmates, in an emailed statement. Baich said since the second drug administered in Oklahoma’s execution cocktail, vecuronium bromide, paralyzes the condemned inmate, it’s impossible to know how much they suffer.
“We will move forward and continue to fully challenge and expose the lack of safety and efficacy of the lethal injection procedures in Oklahoma.”
Baich said they plan to appeal the ruling in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Debra Ogden, the sister of Richard Glossip, who is scheduled to die Jan. 29 for the 1997 killing of Bary Alan Van Treese, said the ruling leaves her worrying about her brother’s fate.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen now,” Ogden said.
“I’m worried it’s going to get botched up like the rest of them have.”
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Federal Judge Refuses To Keep Oklahoma Executions On Hold
Four inmates in Oklahoma are set to be executed in the first three months of 2015. The inmates’ lawyer says they will continue to fight to stop the scheduled executions.
By Chris Geidner, December 22, 2014
A federal judge in Oklahoma on Monday refused to keep executions in the state on hold, turning down a request from four death-row inmates’ scheduled to be executed in the first three months of 2015.
U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Friot denied the request for a preliminary injunction on Monday following a three-day hearing that took place last week.
“[T]he court concludes that the movants have failed to establish a probability of success on the merits of any of the five claims they assert for preliminary injunction purposes,” Friot wrote in the brief order, adding that “that entry of a preliminary injunction would not be in the public interest.”
The lawsuit, filed by several Oklahoma death-row inmates, followed the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April. Although Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin temporarily halted executions and reviewed the state’s execution procedures, the state altered its execution protocol and has prepared to re-start executions.
Charles Warner is set to be executed on January 15, 2015, Richard Glossip on January 29, 2015, John Grant on February 19, 2015, and Benjamin Cole on March 5, 2015.
“There are several reasons for serious concern about Oklahoma’s ability to carry out executions that comply with the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment,” the inmates’ lawyer, Dale Baich, said in a statement. “We will move forward and continue to fully challenge and expose the lack of safety and efficacy of the lethal injection procedures in Oklahoma.”
Among the reasons to grant the injunction, the inmates had argued, were because they have a “real and immediate concern” they won’t get “timely and meaningful notice as to how they will be executed” — depriving them of the opportunity to seek relief from the courts.
The state countered that most federal courts agree that inmates have “no due process right to information regarding the methods of their executions.”
The inmates also raised Eighth Amendment claims, arguing that the drugs and procedures used and training provided have the potential to lead to cruel and unusual punishment. “Defendants continue to experiment on captive subjects by using untested procedures that produce unknown results,” the inmates’ lawyers wrote.
“To the extent that there is a possibility that an individual would be currently licensed, pass the requisite background checks, participate in the training, and still make a mistake in the execution process,” the state responded, “this is merely an outlier possibility, not a substantial risk of serious harm created by the protocol.”
Finally, the inmates raised concerns about whether they will be “able to access information, access their counsel, and in turn access the courts on the day of their executions.”
Of the “claim that they have a First Amendment right to information regarding their executions,” the state argued, “[T]his claim is baseless and unsupported by the law.”
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http://kfor.com/2014/12/22/federal-judge-announces-decision-on-fate-of-oklahoma-executions/
Federal judge announces decision on fate of Oklahoma executions
BY DALLAS FRANKLIN, DECEMBER 22, 2014
OKLAHOMA CITY – Earlier this month, 21 death row inmates asked a judge to halt their punishment, following the botched execution of convicted killer Clayton Lockett last April.
Today, a judge denied their requests to halt executions in Oklahoma.
The judge ruled Oklahoma’s execution protocols are constitutional.
The judge’s decision means executions will go forth as planned.
The inmates say Oklahoma’s execution procedures are nothing short of cruel and unusual punishment.
However, attorneys for the State of Oklahoma say the use of narcotics in executions is not cruel and unusual.
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http://sputniknews.com/us/20141223/1016149719.html
Oklahoma Resumes Executions via Lethal Injection Following 8-Month Hiatus
December 23, 2014
Oklahoma is set to resume executing its death row felons using lethal injections after an eight-month hiatus which was prompted by problems which occurred the last time the state attempted to carry out a death sentence; it will use the same sedative that made the previous procedure go awry.
MOSCOW, December 23 (Sputnik) – A federal judge in Oklahoma City ruled on Monday that the state can resume using lethal injections to put convicts to death, according to The New York Times report.
It will use the same set of sedatives that caused problems the last time it tried to carry out a death sentence.
Federal District Court Judge Stephen P. Friot denied a request for a preliminary injunction which was requested by a group of 21 Oklahoma death row convicts.
When criminals are sentenced to death in Oklahoma, protocol requires the state to kill them by injecting them with three drugs. The 21 inmates have asked that one of these drugs, midazolam, be removed from the lethal combination, as it caused the last convict who was put to death, Clayton Locket, to suffer unnecessarily during his April 2015 execution.
The judge said that lethal injections are more humane than historical methods like hanging, and that since the sedative in question had been successfully used in a dozen executions elsewhere, it should not be considered new or experimental, according to The New York Times. Nonetheless, “Federal courts should not sit as a board of inquiry as to best practices,” the newspaper quotes him as saying, “The plaintiffs have failed to present a known and available alternative.”
An occasional isolated episode does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, he added.
On April 29, the execution of Clayton Lockett lasted 43 minutes instead of 15, as planned, with the inmate writhing on the gurney, mumbling and visibly gasping. Lockett's execution was the first in Oklahoma where midazolam was used.
Attorneys for the state maintained that the problems with Lockett's execution were the result of an improperly set single intravenous line that wasn't properly monitored during his execution. They contend that the botched set-up caused the lethal drugs to be administered locally instead of directly into his blood, AP reported.
However, the lawyers for the Oklahoma prisoners have argued that even when administered properly, midazolam cannot reliably protect the condemned against excruciating pain when the second two drugs are injected. They point to other unusually prolonged executions this year which involved midazolam in Arizona and Ohio.
However, Oklahoma officials noted that Florida has conducted numerous executions using midazolam without evidence of problems or suffering.
In response to the Lockett incident, Oklahoma placed a moratorium on executions after April 29.
Now that the state has re-committed itself to the deadly procedure, it plans to execute four men in three months, starting with Charles F. Warner on January 15.
Oklahoma officials have said that in the future they will inject 500 milligrams of midazolam, compared with the 100 milligrams given to Clayton Lockett.
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http://www.news9.com/story/27690366/judge-rules-oklahomas-execution-cocktail-is-constitutional
Judge Rules Oklahoma's Execution Cocktail Is Constitutional
BY JUSTIN DOUGHERTY, December 22, 2014
OKLAHOMA CITY - The delayed execution of Clayton Lockett continued to unfold, Monday.
A federal judge ruled the state's newest three-drug cocktail is constitutional.
The decision came after months of the state creating new protocols in its execution process.
The 21 death row inmates behind this lawsuit challenged the drug cocktail as "experimental."
With Federal Judge Stephen Friot ruling the combination is constitutional, those involved with the cases from the very beginning said they feel these inmates chose their fate.
"It's frustrating because the people of Oklahoma have had to fund his incarceration for a long time," said Bill McWilliams, a former jury foreman in the murder trial of Richard Glossip.
Sixteen years passed and Bill McWilliams said he continues to wait.
"We're trying to protect the people of Oklahoma," said McWilliams.
In 1998 McWilliams said, as jury foreman, he and eleven other jurors sentenced Richard Glossip to death for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese.
Glossip is scheduled to be executed after Charles Warner.
"It never was a punishment. It was a guarantee he would not get back into public circulation," said McWilliams.
Glossip and Warner were part of the lawsuit from 21 death row inmates that said the state was using them as an experiment.
"Never once thinking about their victims and what they went through. I mean there were some buried alive," said McWilliams.
The newest drug cocktail, also used in Florida, is a dosage increase from the drugs used in the delayed execution of Clayton Lockett on April 29.
Since April, Attorney General Scott Pruitt created new protocol along with a remodeled execution chamber.
"This narrative that has put into the marketplace by anti-death penalty folks and criminal defense attorneys that somehow the state is just hastily just someway trying to execute individuals is just simply legendary and fiction," said Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma Attorney General.
McWilliams said he feels it's time Glossip and the others face the results of their decisions.
"Do I want to see Glossip executed? No. It's a sad situation, but I didn't choose that situation, he did,” said McWilliams.
The inmates' injunction has been denied, which means the state may proceed with the next execution which is scheduled for Jan. 15 for convicted murderer, Charles Warner.
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