USA: LAWSUIT FILED TO ALLOW MEDIA TO WITNESS ENTIRE EXECUTIONS IN OKLAHOMA, AUTOPSY REVEALS CLAYTON LOCKETT DIED FROM LETHAL INJECTION, NOT HEART ATTACK

August 28, 2014: two newspapers, the Oklahoma Observer and The Guardian U.S., filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, naming Department of Corrections’ Director Robert Patton and the warden of the state penitentiary, Anita Trammell, as defendants.
The suit alleges, in the execution of Clayton Lockett on 29 April 2014, the plaintiffs - and the news media as a whole - were prevented from witnessing the entire process, as is provided for in both the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions. Specifically, the suit points to the fact that the shade between the viewing room and the execution chamber was not opened until 6:23 p.m., more than an hour after Lockett had been brought into the chamber.
According to the post-incident report provided by the Department of Corrections, it was during that period that a phlebotomist struggled to insert the IV that would deliver the lethal drugs to Lockett. An independent autopsy released on 28 August declared that Clayton Lockett died from “judicial execution by lethal injection” and not from a heart attack, as prison officials had concluded at the time. The autopsy, conducted by the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas, Texas, detailed multiple locations where officials attempted to inject Lockett, including in the groin, chest, neck, both arms and one of his feet.
“The state foreclosed access at the most critical juncture of the execution proceeding,” attorneys stated in the lawsuit, “when it became apparent that the lethal injection proceeding diverged from the standard protocol.” An official with the ACLU of Oklahoma, which filed the lawsuit, said this violation goes to the heart of our belief that government is by the people and for the people. “Regardless of where Oklahomans stand on the death penalty,” said Ryan Kiesel, Executive Director of ACLU Oklahoma, “I think we can all agree when the government is exercising its ultimate power – which is the intentional taking of a life – that that should not be done in secret.”
The plaintiffs are seeking a declaration requiring the state make it clear in its execution protocol that the shade is to be opened as soon as the condemned is brought into the execution chamber, and not closed until there is either a declaration of death, or the execution is stayed.
And they want to get this before the next execution, which is scheduled for November 13. The state has 20 days to respond. (Sources: news9.com, 26/08/2014; AP, 28/08/2014)