Oklahoma Used The Wrong Drug To Execute Charles Warner
Corrections officials in Oklahoma used the wrong drug to execute Charles Warner back in January.
The revelation was included in Warner's autopsy report, which was just made public by the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. According to the report, officials used potassium acetate — not potassium chloride, as state protocol calls for — to stop Warner's heart.
Warner, who was convicted of raping and killing an 11-month-old, had been scheduled to die on the same night as Clayton D. Lockett. If you remember, Lockett's 2014 execution was also botched. A report issued after his death found that a phlebotomist misplaced the IV line intended to deliver the lethal cocktail of drugs directly into Lockett's bloodstream. Instead, the cocktail was delivered to the surrounding tissue and Lockett eventually died of a heart attack.
Warner's autopsy report, first reported by The Oklahoman, shows a discrepancy.
The syringes were labeled "120 mEq Potassium Chloride." But the box containing the vials used to fill those syringes were labeled "20mL single dose Potassium Acetate Injection, USP 40 mEq\2mEq\mL."
Back in September, Gov. Mary Fallin stopped the execution of Richard Glossip, saying the state had received potassium acetate rather than potassium chloride.
In a statement released today, Fallin said a doctor and pharmacist working with the Department of Corrections assured them that the "two drugs are medically interchangeable."
As she talked about delaying Glossip's execution, Fallin said she was made aware that the two drugs may have been interchanged during Warner's execution.
"I was not aware nor was anyone in my office aware of that possibility until the day of Richard Glossip's scheduled execution," said Fallin. "The attorney general's office is conducting an inquiry into the Warner execution, and I am fully supportive of that inquiry. It is imperative that the attorney general obtain the information he needs to make sure justice is served competently and fairly."
Fallin said that until the state has "complete confidence in the system" she will delay any scheduled executions.
Glossip's attorney, Dale Baich, said in a statement that Oklahoma cannot be trusted to get this procedure right.
"The state's disclosure that it used potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride during the execution of Charles Warner yet again raises serious questions about the ability of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to carry out executions," Baich said. "The execution logs for Charles Warner say that he was administered potassium chloride, but now the state says potassium acetate was used. We will explore this in detail through the discovery process in the federal litigation."
According to The Associated Press, Oklahoma's execution protocol does allow for some wiggle room in the kind of drugs used in executions.
"The protocols include dosage guidelines for single-drug lethal injections of pentobarbital or sodium pentothal, along with dosages for a three-drug protocol of midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride," the AP reported. "The protocols also allow for rocuronium or pancuronium bromide to be substituted for the second drug. The protocols do not list an alternate for potassium chloride, which is the third drug used."
Of course, this case again points to the issues surrounding how and where states are getting their execution drugs. Oklahoma and other states have struggled to adjust to new combinations of execution drugs after manufacturers, under pressure from critics of capital punishment, ceased providing states with drugs they had long used.
States have turned to so-called compounding pharmacies for new drug combinations that the states and the pharmacies may know little about.
Update at 1:53 p.m. ET. Ongoing Investigation:
Alex Gerszewski, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections' public information officer, said they would not be commenting at this time.
"The attorney general's office has opened an investigation regarding the situation, and out of respect for that inquiry we aren't going to comment any further at this time," Gerszewski said in an email.
Update at 12:41 p.m. ET. More Discrepancies:
Under law, the state must tell the inmate what drugs they intend to use for the execution.
What's more, a service log filled out on the day of the execution records that two syringes filled with "120 mEq Potassium Chloride" were administered and that Warner was pronounced dead at 7:28 p.m., 17 minutes after the first dose of midazolam was administered.
I'm not pro death penalty, or pro botching executions but he raped and killed an 11 month old. I just can't find it in myself to be outraged with this.
I'm not pro death penalty, or pro botching executions but he raped and killed an 11 month old. I just can't find it in myself to be outraged with this.
Post by karinothing on Oct 8, 2015 19:11:36 GMT -5
Yeah I figured when they stayed the execution last week there was more to the story. They have messed up their last 2 executions. I am against the DP so I am biased but the need to have a serious investigation into their process.
I'm not pro death penalty, or pro botching executions but he raped and killed an 11 month old. I just can't find it in myself to be outraged with this.
Post by WanderingWinoZ on Oct 8, 2015 19:57:10 GMT -5
i think we need to set this specific guy aside & acknowledge that, even if our process at arriving at a DP sentence were sound & equitable & fair (it's not even close), the process of the administration of the DP is barbaric & out of control. We as a country are better than this & should not be (potentially) torturing people to death or using inmates as experimental subjects to test out new concoctions since everybody under the sun has decided it's not medically/ethically advisably to participate in the execution process.
I find it bizarre that our country is OK with 30k people being shot and killed every year but won't use firing squads for executions. For some reason that makes us squeamish even though it's clearly more humane and more effective than this.
And add me to the "not sorry it happened to this POS" pile.
i think we need to set this specific guy aside & acknowledge that, even if our process at arriving at a DP sentence were sound & equitable & fair (it's not even close), the process of the administration of the DP is barbaric & out of control. We as a country are better than this & should not be (potentially) torturing people to death or using inmates as experimental subjects to test out new concoctions since everybody under the sun has decided it's not medically/ethically advisably to participate in the execution process.
Right. Instead we should be letting these guys rot in jail as we mentally torture them day after day after day after day. Much more humane.
Post by iammalcolmx on Oct 8, 2015 21:24:15 GMT -5
I was ready to come in here mad and repentant cause I wasn't mortified at the last dude. But he raped and murdered a damn baby? The fucks I have to give left me about 20 years ago.
i think we need to set this specific guy aside & acknowledge that, even if our process at arriving at a DP sentence were sound & equitable & fair (it's not even close), the process of the administration of the DP is barbaric & out of control. We as a country are better than this & should not be (potentially) torturing people to death or using inmates as experimental subjects to test out new concoctions since everybody under the sun has decided it's not medically/ethically advisably to participate in the execution process.
In more ways than just the DP we are not. Absolutely not.
I am still not sure how I feel about the DP. I won't say that I feel bad that this guy was executed. I will say that if we are going to have the DP, we need this to stop happening.
"Not gonna lie; I kind of keep expecting you to post one day that you threw down on someone who clearly had no idea that today was NOT THEIR DAY." ~dontcallmeshirley
I don't understand at all how they cannot procure something that will kill somebody. Can't they give them the meds that they give people who are doing assisted suicide? Heroin overdose? Procure the stuff for animals that those companies are trying to keep from them?
And I agree, why not just do a firing squad? I'm sure there are lots of Good Guys With Guns who would volunteer.
I am side-eying that this is happening.
Companies won't give it to them if they know they're going to be used in applying the death penalty.
I just have a hard time believing that state governments in America couldn't find someplace to get these. Does the US not operate any chemistry labs as a gov't entity? Would there really not be a company in the US that would produce it for the right price?
I'm actually against the death penalty, but I just don't believe that they couldn't get their hands on something appropriate.
I mean, yeah, I agree it seems crazy to me too. But it went all the way to the Supreme Court, so I'm thinking they have really tried to get it other places and can't. And since it's not federal, but state - and states have like negative money - they can't afford to pay for the production of it. If they could - I wonder if they'd find people with the right degrees/education know-how to staff it and make it reasonably make sense fiscally.
I just have a hard time believing that state governments in America couldn't find someplace to get these. Does the US not operate any chemistry labs as a gov't entity? Would there really not be a company in the US that would produce it for the right price?
I'm actually against the death penalty, but I just don't believe that they couldn't get their hands on something appropriate.
I mean, yeah, I agree it seems crazy to me too. But it went all the way to the Supreme Court, so I'm thinking they have really tried to get it other places and can't. And since it's not federal, but state - and states have like negative money - they can't afford to pay for the production of it. If they could - I wonder if they'd find people with the right degrees/education know-how to staff it and make it reasonably make sense fiscally.
any/all doctors are supposed to be barred from assisting with this due to Hippocratic oath they took. I think that's also why they have problems getting appropriately trained personnel to administer the drugs or assist in any way with the execution itself.
I just wish some of those candidates who are all like "BRING BACK AMERICA'S GREATNESS!!!!!!!111!!" would think about the moral implications of some of the things we are doing now....
Regardless of how you feel about this particular person deserving the death penalty, the constitution DOES prohibit cruel and unusual punishment, and the wrong application of lethal injection, as seen in Oklahoma's previous attempt, can amount to torturing someone to death. Which, again, is prohibited by the constitution.
Yikes. I'm against the death penalty for purely practical reasons but I think if we're going to persist with doing it, we HAVE to stop messing up! Jeez. Bring back the firing squad before they botch another one.
i think we need to set this specific guy aside & acknowledge that, even if our process at arriving at a DP sentence were sound & equitable & fair (it's not even close), the process of the administration of the DP is barbaric & out of control. We as a country are better than this & should not be (potentially) torturing people to death or using inmates as experimental subjects to test out new concoctions since everybody under the sun has decided it's not medically/ethically advisably to participate in the execution process.
Right. Instead we should be letting these guys rot in jail as we mentally torture them day after day after day after day. Much more humane.
This is a good point. I wonder how many people would willingly choose death if their alternative was life in prison without parole. That seems worse to me. Maybe we should let them choose.
Post by EloiseWeenie on Oct 9, 2015 7:00:19 GMT -5
The botched executions are totally unacceptable. It really is surprising that the government doesn't own its own lab to create the proper drug, since the private industry won't sell it for DP usage.
Really though, if the execution is going to be botched, I'm not sad that it happened to this guy.
I don't understand at all how they cannot procure something that will kill somebody. Can't they give them the meds that they give people who are doing assisted suicide? Heroin overdose? Procure the stuff for animals that those companies are trying to keep from them?
And I agree, why not just do a firing squad? I'm sure there are lots of Good Guys With Guns who would volunteer.
I am side-eying that this is happening.
Yeah, it's a lot harder than one would think. Of course, getting a gun is easier than one would think.
The hoops I had to jump through just to get pure ethanol, for fucking cancer research!
I mean, yeah, I agree it seems crazy to me too. But it went all the way to the Supreme Court, so I'm thinking they have really tried to get it other places and can't. And since it's not federal, but state - and states have like negative money - they can't afford to pay for the production of it. If they could - I wonder if they'd find people with the right degrees/education know-how to staff it and make it reasonably make sense fiscally.
any/all doctors are supposed to be barred from assisting with this due to Hippocratic oath they took. I think that's also why they have problems getting appropriately trained personnel to administer the drugs or assist in any way with the execution itself.
Chemists/biologists/other scientists who might know this stuff should be able to help. Are phlebotomists doctors under the Hippocratic oath? (Genuine question, no snark intended) I don't know if they swear the oath. Trained paramedics can usually place an IV successfully in a vein. I don't understand how someone could so clearly botch it and find that unacceptable that it happened.
Isn't this supposed to be monitored and checked, along with more than one person looking at the chemicals being used to kill someone? I mean, this is not small beans we're talking about here! I am against DP, although can't think of a better solution, but if it has to be done it's got to be better than this.
Add me to the camp of not being sorry it happened to that guy, though.
Phlebotomy doesn't require any degree, usually just a small certificate of training.
But, that's for taking blood, not administering a medication. That requires degrees and stuff.
Yes and the American pharmacist association (I think that is the name) just issued a statement against the DP too. I get that this guy was a horrible human being, but plenty of people given the DP aren't as horrible. Expecially the likely innocent man OK is set to execute in less than 30 days.