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 11th 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 8th 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.