Sports Editor
An
Oklahoma death row inmate, Clayton Lockett, writhed in pain as he lay dying,
strapped to a gurney as prison officials lowered the blinds in the room to
prevent those in the viewing gallery from witnessing the horror that was
unfolding in the death chamber. It was a botched execution. Lockett, age 38, convicted
of shooting a nineteen year old girl and helping to bury her alive, was
scheduled to be put to death via lethal injection at 6:23 p.m., but it took
until 7:06 p.m. for the prisoner to finally succumb to a heart attack. A usual
execution takes a typical total of five to eighteen minutes to complete.
Lockett’s took over forty.
Lockett
was the first inmate to receive the state’s new lethal injection combination,
which involved using the sedative midazolam as the first element. Florida has
used the same combination of drugs; however, they use 500 milligrams of
midazolam compared to only 100 milligrams used by Oklahoma.
Doctors
blame a ruptured vein for the problems with the execution. Three minutes after
being declared unconscious, Lockett began breathing heavily and writhing on the
gurney, clenching his teeth and apparently attempting to raise his head. Up to
seven percent of all executions by lethal injection are reportedly botched. The
botched execution has reopened questions about what defines “cruel and unusual
punishment,” and whether or not states have the ability to administer
injections that meet the U.S. Constitution’s requirements.
Over
two thirds of the world has abolished capital punishment, but the U.S.
continues to support the execution of inmates. In recent years, use of the
death penalty is declining in the U.S. It was used 98 times in 1999, compared
to only 39 times in 2013. The change may be due to waning public support of
capital punishment, but a steady decline in murders committed over the same
time period may also be a factor. North
Carolina has not used capital punishment on a prisoner in over eight years, due
to concerns over accusations of malpractice on doctors who perform the
execution.
Lockett’s
botched execution is not the first of its kind. On January 16, Dennis McGuire
struggled for life for 19 minutes after receiving a lethal injection in Ohio. The
last known botched execution in North Carolina was in 1936 when Allen Foster
was executed via gas chamber. The man suffered for eleven minutes in the
chamber before finally passing away. These executions raise the question,
should the U.S. abolish capital punishment?
According
to a new Gallup poll 60% of Americans support the death penalty, which is the
lowest level of support since November 1972.
