First Lethal Injections Since Botched Oklahoma Execution Veiled in Secrecy

Georgia and Missouri each car­ried out an exe­cu­tion on June 17 and 18 respec­tive­ly, mark­ing the first exe­cu­tions since the botched lethal injec­tion of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma on April 29. Georgia exe­cut­ed Marcus Wellons (l.) after chal­lenges to the state’s lethal injec­tion secre­cy law were denied. One of the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit that allowed the exe­cu­tion wrote sep­a­rate­ly of the ​“dis­turb­ing cir­cu­lar­i­ty prob­lem” in requir­ing Wellons to show that the planned method of exe­cu­tion would cause him unac­cept­able harm, but deny­ing him the infor­ma­tion to sup­port such a claim: ​“How could he when the state has passed a law pro­hibit­ing him from learn­ing about the com­pound it plans to use to exe­cute him?” In Missouri, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8^th Circuit lift­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion that had been in place for John Winfield (r.) allow­ing his exe­cu­tion just after mid­night on June 18. Winfield’s exe­cu­tion had been stayed because cor­rec­tion offi­cials had inter­fered with the clemen­cy process by pres­sur­ing a prison employ­ee who intend­ed to tes­ti­fy in favor of clemen­cy for Winfield. Missouri’s lethal injec­tion process was also chal­lenged because of its fail­ure to divulge the source of its drugs.

(M. Pearce and R. Parker, ​“Georgia, Missouri exe­cute con­vict­ed killers; first since botched lethal injec­tion,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2014). See Lethal Injection and Clemency. See also Executions in 2014.