The Tulsa World of Oklahoma recently conducted an investigation into the state’s execution protocol in the wake of the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April. Comparing Oklahoma’s protocol to those of 19 other states, the study found that Oklahoma lacks basic safeguards followed in many other states. Among those are regular training for the execution team, the availability of backup drugs in the event of a problem with the initial injection, and specified procedures for determining whether the inmate is unconscious. The World questioned Oklahoma’s decision to use a three-drug protocol when a less error-prone, one-drug protocol was available under the state’s procedures. A review of autopsy records from Oklahoma’s executed inmates found that all inmates were given the same dose of the drugs, regardless of their weight. At least 32 of the 108 inmates for whom records were available had levels of anesthetic in their blood below what experts say would render a patient unconscious. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court said it was “uncontested” that, without sufficient anesthesia, “there is a substantial, constitutionally unacceptable risk of suffocation” from the second and third drugs used in lethal injections. A state law passed in 2000 ended the practice of automatic autopsies of executed prisoners. Autopsies are now performed only if requested by the inmate’s family or ordered by state officials. An autopsy of Clayton Lockett was ordered, but the full results have not yet been released.

(Z. Branstetter and C. Aspinwall, “Lethal lessons: State’s execution procedures fall short, World review finds” and “State fails to autopsy most inmates,” Tulsa World (subscrip.), June 23 and 24, 2014). See Lethal Injection and Studies.

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