Oklahoma Knew It Had Used Unauthorized Drug Months Before It Aborted Richard Glossip’s Execution

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections knew it had used an unau­tho­rized drug in the exe­cu­tion of Charles Warner near­ly six months before it almost repeat­ed the mis­take in the abort­ed exe­cu­tion of Richard Glossip. Oklahoma exe­cut­ed Warner on January 15, 2015. 

Documents obtained by BuzzFeed News reveal that three months lat­er, in April, the state med­ical exam­in­er sub­mit­ted a report to the Department on Warner’s autop­sy, show­ing that he had been exe­cut­ed using potas­si­um acetate, in vio­la­tion of the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col which required the use of potas­si­um chlo­ride. The Department appar­ent­ly received the report in advance of the April 29, 2015 Supreme Court argu­ment in Glossip v. Gross, in which Oklahoma death row pris­on­ers chal­lenged the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the use of the drug, mida­zo­lam, the first com­po­nent of the state’s three-drug execution process. 

Oklahoma had rep­re­sent­ed to the fed­er­al courts through­out those pro­ceed­ings that it was com­ply­ing with its pro­to­col, and the Supreme Court nar­row­ly upheld Oklahoma’s pro­to­col on June 29. Glossip’s exe­cu­tion was sched­uled for September 30, but was halt­ed at the last minute after the doc­tor over­see­ing the exe­cu­tion noticed that the state had again obtained potas­si­um acetate instead of potas­si­um chlo­ride. Emails sug­gest that the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office may already have known about the exe­cu­tion prob­lems before their recur­rence in Glossip’s case, because they sought details about Warner’s exe­cu­tion from the med­ical exam­in­er in early September. 

Shortly after Glossip’s exe­cu­tion was stayed, The Oklahoman report­ed that the state had used the wrong drug in Warner’s exe­cu­tion. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt launched a grand jury inves­ti­ga­tion into the pro­to­col vio­la­tions in October. Since the grand jury inves­ti­ga­tion began, two cor­rec­tion­al offi­cials and the gov­er­nor’s gen­er­al coun­sel have resigned. The grand jury could release their report as ear­ly as this week.