Execution team spent almost an hour trying to find usable veins on Clayton Lockett’s body – and what happened next left eyewitnesses horrified
A death row inmate took almost 45 minutes to die in a horrifying botched execution – covering the chamber in his blood and leaving him writhing in agony.
Clayton Lockett, 38, was sentenced to die in April 2018 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in the US after being convicted of murder, rape and kidnapping.
He shot 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman and watched as two accomplices buried her alive in 1999 – after she and a friend interrupted the men as they robbed a home.
The day of the execution, teams spent more than 50 minutes trying to find usable veins before locating one on Lockett’s groin. Court filings and reports described dozens of needle punctures across his arms, legs and neck.
A doctor attempting the groin line reportedly struck an artery, spraying blood that hit staff and left the legal chamber in a “bloody mess.”
After the lethal injection, Lockett did not slip peacefully away. Witnesses and reporters describe him thrashing, lifting his head and shoulders from the table, and making groaning sounds. Prison staff drew blinds over the witness chamber about 16 minutes into the process as it descended into chaos. It took him an agonising 43 minutes to finally die.
A paramedic at the scene told The Guardian: “I said (redacted) you’ve hit the artery. Well, it’ll be alright [sic]. We’ll go ahead and get the drugs. No. We can’t do that. It doesn’t work that way, and then I wasn’t telling him that.
“I mean, I wasn’t trying to countermand his authority, but he was a little anxious … I don’t think he realised that he hit the artery, and I remember saying You’ve got the artery. We’ve got blood everywhere.”
Courtney Francisco, a local journalist present at the execution, told the BBC that he was mumbling “as if he was trying to talk”. Lockett’s lawyer, David Autry, said: “It was a horrible thing to witness. This was totally botched.”
Governor Mary Fallin ordered an independent review and a temporary halt to other scheduled executions while Oklahoma’s protocols were scrutinised. A nationwide debate ensued about the drugs states were using and whether midazolam – the sedative used in this case – offered adequate unconsciousness.
Critics said insufficient training for medical personnel and secrecy over procedures helped create the conditions for the catastrophe, not solely the cocktail of drugs.
Lockett’s fellow inmate, Charles Warner, was scheduled to be killed in the same room just two hours later. However, it was delayed until 2015 after the executors’ farcical attempts.
Warner’s lawyer, Madeline Cohen, was in the room for Lockett’s execution and said he had been “tortured to death” while calling for an investigation. She said: “The state must disclose complete information about the drugs, including their purity, efficacy, source and the results of any testing.”
