Oklahoma Execution Officials Were 'Careless'

An inquiry into a series of botched executions in Oklahoma has found that officials involved in the process were "careless and cavalier" and in some cases ignored the rules.

In a report that ran to more than 100 pages, the grand jury found that prison staff did not verify what drugs they were using for lethal injections and were unaware when the wrong drugs were administered.
As a result, a grand jury had recommended that in future, the state execute prisoners with nitrogen gas rather than lethal injection.
"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 on the grand jury's findings.
"A number of individuals responsible for carrying out the execution process were careless, cavalier and in some circumstances dismissive of established procedures that were intended to guard against the very mistakes that occurred."

Video: Pfizer Stops Execution Drugs

In 2014, Clayton Lockett took three quarters of an hour to die, while the following January, Charles Warner was executed with the wrong drug.
A third execution, that of Richard Glossip, was halted at the last moment when officials realised the same wrong drug had been supplied.
The report says that Steve Mullins, a senior legal adviser in the office of Governor Mary Fallin, recommended that the execution should go ahead despite the drug mix-up.
Anita Tramell, the warden of the prison, and her boss Robert Patton, the director of the Department of Corrections, quit their jobs soon after the grand jury began their investigation.
But instead the governor ordered a stay of execution until an inquiry could be carried out.

Video: 2014: Governor Defiant On Execution

All executions in Oklahoma are currently on hold.
The grand jury did not recommended that anyone involved in the errors should be indicted.
In the Warner and Glossip executions, potassium acetate was supplied instead of potassium chloride.
Many states have had problems getting hold of drugs for the lethal injection cocktail because pharmaceutical companies now refuse to supply them.
Last week, Pfizer became the last of the big manufacturers to withdraw its products from the execution business.