Oklahoma launches review after botched execution

A review into a botched execution which left a man violently convulsing for 43 minutes before succumbing to an apparent heart attack has been launched.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said the Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Thomson will head up the review of how the state conducts executions, after the White House likened inmate Clayton Lockett's death to torture.

Ms Fallin said Lockett, who was executed on Tuesday, had his day in court and his innocence was not up for debate.

"I believe the death penalty is an appropriate response and punishment to those who commit heinous crimes against their fellow men and women," she said.

"However, I also believe the state needs to be certain of its protocol and its procedures for executions and that they work."

Ms Fallin said the review would focus on Lockett's cause of death and whether current protocols were followed correctly.

Lockett was one of two scheduled for execution on Tuesday night, with the second man granted a stay.

The 38-year-old was brought into the death chamber and the execution began at 6:23pm.

The first drug in a deadly cocktail of three drugs, never before used Oklahoma, was administered.

Ten minutes later officials declared him unconscious.

But as they administered the remaining two drugs, there was apparently a problem with Lockett's veins.

The blinds were lowered so that witnesses could not see what was happening.

At approimately 7:06pm he died, apparently of a heart attack.

The state office is keeping details about the new lethal injection combination secret.

Lockett was convicted of shooting a 19-year-old Stefanie Newman and watching as accomplices buried her alive.

Source: ABC, Huffington Post
Author: Chloe Ross, Approving editor: Simon Black