Oklahoma: Clayton Lockett

Report from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety on the exe­cu­tion of Clayton Lockett (Sept. 4, 2014)

QUOTATIONS FROM THE OKLAHOMA REPORT:

  • The physi­cian had nev­er attempt­ed femoral vein access with a 11⁄4 inch needle/​catheter; how­ev­er, it was the longest DOC had read­i­ly avail­able. An addi­tion­al cen­tral venous catheter­i­za­tion kit was avail­able, but the physi­cian did not think about uti­liz­ing one for femoral access.
  • The physi­cian approached Lockett and indi­cat­ed to Warden Trammell that some­thing was wrong. He looked under the sheet and rec­og­nized the IV had infil­trat­ed. At this same time, Warden Trammell viewed what appeared to be a clear liq­uid and blood on Lockett’s skin in the groin area. The physi­cian observed an area of swelling under­neath the skin and described it as small­er than a ten­nis ball, but larg­er than a golf ball. The physi­cian believed the swelling would have been notice­able if the access point had been viewed dur­ing the process.
  • Warden Trammell and Director Patton both acknowl­edged the train­ing DOC per­son­nel received pri­or to the exe­cu­tion was inad­e­quate. Warden Trammell stat­ed the only train­ing she received was on-the-job train­ing and that DOC had no for­mal­ized train­ing pro­ce­dures or process­es con­cern­ing the duties of each spe­cif­ic position’s respon­si­bil­i­ty. The war­den and direc­tor both indi­cat­ed DOC had no train­ing pro­to­cols or con­tin­gency plans on how to pro­ceed with an exe­cu­tion if com­pli­ca­tions occur dur­ing the process.
  • General Counsel Mullins fur­ther told Director Patton that they would begin prepar­ing a stay at the direc­tion of the Governor. Lockett died pri­or to the order for a stay being relayed to the per­son­nel inside the exe­cu­tion cham­ber. There was con­ver­sa­tion inside the cham­ber about admin­is­ter­ing life-sav­ing mea­sures to Lockett, includ­ing trans­port­ing him to the emer­gency room, but no order was given.

Arizona: Joseph Wood

STATEMENT FROM ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS on their review of the exe­cu­tion of Joseph Wood (July 25, 2014) Log of Joseph Wood’s Execution from Arizona Department of Corrections (July 23, 2014) Stay Order for Joseph Wood from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (lat­er over­turned by the U.S. Supreme Court) (July 19, 2014); Chief Judge Kozinski of the 9th Circuit dis­sent­ing from the denial of rehear­ing en banc (July 21, 2014) 

FDA Litigation

Ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,

find­ing that the FDA failed to ful­fill its duties when it allowed, with­out inspec­tion, the impor­ta­tion of sodi­um thiopen­tal for use in exe­cu­tions (Cook v. FDA, July 23, 2013, affirm­ing in part Beaty v. FDA (below)). Read DPIC post­ing.

Beaty v. FDA, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, March 27, 2012. Read DPIC post­ing on the case. Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder from attor­neys for Georgia death row inmate alleg­ing ille­gal impor­ta­tion of sodi­um thiopen­tal. (Feb. 24, 2011) Response from attor­neys who filed suit against the FDA to the let­ter from the state AGs to Eric Holder (Feb. 16, 2011). Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder from 13 state attor­neys gen­er­al request­ing help in secur­ing lethal injec­tion drugs (January 25, 2011) Response from Attorney General Eric Holder (March 4, 2011) STATEMENT FROM THE U.S. FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION con­cern­ing the impor­ta­tion of lethal injec­tion drugs (Jan. 4, 2011) 

Selected earlier legal developments