Oklahoma bungled drugs used in executions: grand jury report
Source: Reuters
An Oklahoma grand jury looking into the state's troubled executions said in a report released on Thursday that jail staff did not verify what drugs they were using for lethal injections and were unaware when the wrong drugs were administered.
The report, running more than 100 pages, offered a stinging rebuke of state officials, especially those in the Department of Corrections, for their handling of executions, which are currently on hold in Oklahoma due to the troubles in the death chamber.
"Today, I regret to advise the citizens of Oklahoma that the Department of Corrections failed to do its job," Attorney General Scott Pruitt said in a statement.
Oklahoma drew international condemnation following a troubled execution in 2014 in which medical staff did not properly place an intravenous line on a convicted murderer, Clayton Lockett.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oklahoma-execution-idUSKCN0YA31Y
World | Thu May 19, 2016 7:00pm EDT
BY JON HERSKOVITZ AND HEIDE BRANDES
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Source: Associated Press
Oklahoma officials backed use of wrong drug in botched execution – grand jury
Associated Press
Friday 20 May 2016 00.24 BST
The top lawyer for Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin urged prison officials to go forward with a planned execution even though they received the wrong drug, telling a deputy attorney general to “Google it” to confirm it could be used, a grand jury said in a report Thursday.
The grand jury faulted many officials for three botched execution attempts but issued no indictments after its months-long investigation. But the panel noted that Fallin’s general counsel, Steve Mullins, advocated for the use of potassium acetate in the 30 September execution of Richard Glossip, even though the state’s lethal injection protocol calls for potassium chloride, which stops the heart. Fallin later issued a last-minute stay for Glossip, who remains on death row.
“The governor’s general counsel stated potassium chloride and potassium acetate were basically one in the same drug, advising the deputy attorney general to ‘Google it’,” the grand jury report said. Mullins also argued that the state shouldn’t file a stay for Glossip’s execution because “it would look bad for the state of Oklahoma because potassium acetate had already been used in (Charles) Warner’s execution”.
Mullins resigned in February as Fallin’s general counsel. A home phone number in his name rang unanswered Thursday afternoon.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/19/oklahoma-botched-execution-drug-mary-fallin
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