Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma recent­ly said he believes the April 29 exe­cu­tion of Clayton Lockett, ​“was cer­tain­ly not done appro­pri­ate­ly.” Coburn, who is also a physi­cian, added, ​“It’s an unfor­tu­nate thing but, again, any­time you’re doing any­thing with the body, things can go wrong.” He also spoke more broad­ly about his views on the death penal­ty, say­ing, ​“I don’t like it. I wish we put every­body that had such a his­to­ry as this gen­tle­man behind bars work­ing and doing things that would help them.” With regard to the inves­ti­ga­tion the state is con­duct­ing on the botched exe­cu­tion, Coburn said, ​“Oklahoma will cor­rect it. They’ll be trans­par­ent about what hap­pened. They’ll fix what hap­pened.” The sen­a­tor did say he thought the death penal­ty had ​“deter­rent capability.”

(C. Casteel, ​“Sen. Tom Coburn: I don’t like the death penal­ty but it’s a deter­rent,” The Oklahoman, May 1, 2014). See New Voices and Lethal Injection.

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