This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/30/oklahoma-execution-misstep-legal-assault-drug-secrecy
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Oklahoma execution misstep sets up legal assault against US drug secrecy | Oklahoma execution misstep sets up legal assault against US drug secrecy |
| (4 months later) | |
| Lawyers representing the next death row prisoners to face scheduled executions in the US are calling for a moratorium on all judicial killings until the chaos surrounding the use of secretly guarded medical drugs in lethal injections can be resolved. | Lawyers representing the next death row prisoners to face scheduled executions in the US are calling for a moratorium on all judicial killings until the chaos surrounding the use of secretly guarded medical drugs in lethal injections can be resolved. |
| As the governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, ordered an internal investigation into the bungled execution on Tuesday of Clayton Lockett, lawyers in several other states were gearing up to lodge a slew of new litigation designed to pressure the courts to intervene in the crisis. Lockett died of heart failure 43 minutes after an experimental cocktail of three medical drugs was injected into his groin. | As the governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, ordered an internal investigation into the bungled execution on Tuesday of Clayton Lockett, lawyers in several other states were gearing up to lodge a slew of new litigation designed to pressure the courts to intervene in the crisis. Lockett died of heart failure 43 minutes after an experimental cocktail of three medical drugs was injected into his groin. |
| At the point in the procedure at which it became clear that the execution had gone awry, officials closed the blinds between the death chamber and the witnessing room. | |
| The next inmate to face the gurney is Robert Campbell, 42, in Texas on 13 May. Lawyers in that state are preparing new litigation challenging the state’s refusal to provide any public information about where and how it is obtaining its lethal injection drugs. Like many other death penalty states, Texas has opted for secrecy in an attempt to keep supplies of the drugs open in the face of a European-lead boycott designed to prevent medicines designed to heal people being used in executions. | |
| Texas’s current death protocol lists pentobarbital as its lethal drug of choice, and it is believed that the department of corrections has obtained supplies of the barbiturate from domestic compounding pharmacies that are not subject to federal regulations. The state is also known to have supplies of midazolam, the sedative used as the first of three drugs in Tuesday night’s grim proceedings in Oklahoma. | Texas’s current death protocol lists pentobarbital as its lethal drug of choice, and it is believed that the department of corrections has obtained supplies of the barbiturate from domestic compounding pharmacies that are not subject to federal regulations. The state is also known to have supplies of midazolam, the sedative used as the first of three drugs in Tuesday night’s grim proceedings in Oklahoma. |
| Maurie Levin, one of a team of lawyers working on the new Texas litigation, said that “if nothing else, Mr Lockett’s execution in Oklahoma makes clear that you can’t simply take the word of the executioner that everything will be OK. Access to information is necessary to be able to determine whether we are at risk of an execution like what happened last night.” | Maurie Levin, one of a team of lawyers working on the new Texas litigation, said that “if nothing else, Mr Lockett’s execution in Oklahoma makes clear that you can’t simply take the word of the executioner that everything will be OK. Access to information is necessary to be able to determine whether we are at risk of an execution like what happened last night.” |
| The second scheduled execution is that of Russell Bucklew, 45, in Missouri on 21 May. Missouri has also taken the route of secrecy, shrouding all information about its source of lethal injection drugs in tight new confidentiality rules. | The second scheduled execution is that of Russell Bucklew, 45, in Missouri on 21 May. Missouri has also taken the route of secrecy, shrouding all information about its source of lethal injection drugs in tight new confidentiality rules. |
| Bucklew’s case is all the more sensitive because he has a long-standing medical condition, cavernous hemangioma, a malformation of the blood vessels that could make it extremely difficult for officials to locate a working vein through which to inject the lethal drugs. | Bucklew’s case is all the more sensitive because he has a long-standing medical condition, cavernous hemangioma, a malformation of the blood vessels that could make it extremely difficult for officials to locate a working vein through which to inject the lethal drugs. |
| The prisoner’s lawyer, Cheryl Pilate, said that new legal challenges were being prepared “on several fronts” challenging Bucklew’s execution in the wake of the Oklahoma events. “What happened last night in Oklahoma was inevitable,” she told the Guardian. | The prisoner’s lawyer, Cheryl Pilate, said that new legal challenges were being prepared “on several fronts” challenging Bucklew’s execution in the wake of the Oklahoma events. “What happened last night in Oklahoma was inevitable,” she told the Guardian. |
| “At some point we knew that the unknown drugs and the untested protocols that are being applied by death penalty states behind a wall of secrecy would result in a horrific botched execution and that’s exactly what occurred.” | “At some point we knew that the unknown drugs and the untested protocols that are being applied by death penalty states behind a wall of secrecy would result in a horrific botched execution and that’s exactly what occurred.” |
| So far the higher courts have shown a reluctance to be drawn into legal battle over the secrecy imposed by departments of correction over how they are obtaining medical drugs. Rulings are pending from the supreme courts of Georgia and Louisiana over the issue, but the US supreme court, the highest judicial panel in the nation, has declined to hear cases. | So far the higher courts have shown a reluctance to be drawn into legal battle over the secrecy imposed by departments of correction over how they are obtaining medical drugs. Rulings are pending from the supreme courts of Georgia and Louisiana over the issue, but the US supreme court, the highest judicial panel in the nation, has declined to hear cases. |
| But there are signs of growing legal dissent. In Missouri, an eighth circuit appeals court judge, Kermit Bye, has issued two scathing minority opinions in which he has heavily criticised creeping secrecy across death penalty states. | But there are signs of growing legal dissent. In Missouri, an eighth circuit appeals court judge, Kermit Bye, has issued two scathing minority opinions in which he has heavily criticised creeping secrecy across death penalty states. |
| In the most recent, he accused the state of Missouri of hiding “behind the hangman’s cloak by refusing to disclose pertinent information to the inmates … It is fundamentally important the state is sufficiently transparent about its protocol to allow adequate review of the constitutionality of its chosen method.” | In the most recent, he accused the state of Missouri of hiding “behind the hangman’s cloak by refusing to disclose pertinent information to the inmates … It is fundamentally important the state is sufficiently transparent about its protocol to allow adequate review of the constitutionality of its chosen method.” |
| Bye’s first dissenting opinion, in which he likened compounding pharmacies to a high school chemistry class, was joined by three of the nine justices sitting on the US supreme court, indicating a small but potentially significant emergence of debate at the highest level. The last time the US supreme court stepped in and put a stop to all executions in the country was for a four-year period in the 1970s. | Bye’s first dissenting opinion, in which he likened compounding pharmacies to a high school chemistry class, was joined by three of the nine justices sitting on the US supreme court, indicating a small but potentially significant emergence of debate at the highest level. The last time the US supreme court stepped in and put a stop to all executions in the country was for a four-year period in the 1970s. |
| “It is good to see that some judges and justices, when presented with the facts about the secrecy surrounding these drugs, are balking and are pointing out that this flies in the face of the US constitution,” said Megan McCracken of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley school of law. | “It is good to see that some judges and justices, when presented with the facts about the secrecy surrounding these drugs, are balking and are pointing out that this flies in the face of the US constitution,” said Megan McCracken of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley school of law. |
| Medical experts familiar with drugs used in Oklahoma’s botched execution of Lockett have expressed particular alarm that the curtain was drawn just at the moment when most public scrutiny of the proceedings was needed. “It’s abysmal that they had the gall to close the curtains at a time when transparency was essential. That’s when witnesses were most needed to report back what happened to the rest of the country,” said one expert who asked not to be named. | Medical experts familiar with drugs used in Oklahoma’s botched execution of Lockett have expressed particular alarm that the curtain was drawn just at the moment when most public scrutiny of the proceedings was needed. “It’s abysmal that they had the gall to close the curtains at a time when transparency was essential. That’s when witnesses were most needed to report back what happened to the rest of the country,” said one expert who asked not to be named. |
| Specialists working with lethal drugs such as those deployed on Tuesday night said that it should have been possible to save Lockett’s life once the execution had been called off and even after the injections of midazolam, vencuronium bromide and potassium chloride had been given. Had he received resuscitation measures such as inserting a breathing tube and placing him on a ventilator, and applying tourniquets to his arms to prevent the potassium reaching his heart, it is very likely that he could have been fully revived. | Specialists working with lethal drugs such as those deployed on Tuesday night said that it should have been possible to save Lockett’s life once the execution had been called off and even after the injections of midazolam, vencuronium bromide and potassium chloride had been given. Had he received resuscitation measures such as inserting a breathing tube and placing him on a ventilator, and applying tourniquets to his arms to prevent the potassium reaching his heart, it is very likely that he could have been fully revived. |
| • This article was updated on 2 May to reflect updated information from the state of Oklahoma that lethal drugs were injected into Lockett's groin, not his arm. | • This article was updated on 2 May to reflect updated information from the state of Oklahoma that lethal drugs were injected into Lockett's groin, not his arm. |