After delaying an execution last month over a drug mix-up, it emerged this week that Oklahoma reportedly used the wrong drug in the January lethal injection of Charles Warner.
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The autopsy report, prepared the day after Warner’s January 15 execution and revealed by The Oklahoman newspaper on Thursday, describes the instruments of death in detail. “But the box containing the vials used to fill those syringes were labeled “’20mL single dose Potassium Acetate Injection, USP 40 mEq2mEqmL”.
An attorney representing several Oklahoma death row inmates says the state can not be trusted to tell the truth about its executions.
“We’ve been speaking until we are blue in the face about the lack of integrity in the process”, Oklahoma ACLU legal director Brady Henderson said.
The governor’s office said the same mix-up may have occurred in the January execution of Charles Warner.
“As you are aware the Attorney General’s office has opened an inquiry”, Patton said in an e-mailed statement Thursday.
Patton oversaw Warner’s execution and the April 2014 lethal injection of Clayton Lockett, who writhed on the gurney, moaned and pulled up from his restraints. Execution team members considered trying to save his life and even taking Lockett to an emergency room before he finally died, 43 minutes after his initial injection. Warner’s execution was the first to be carried out in Oklahoma since the botched execution of death row inmate Curt Lockett.
Potassium acetate, the drug in question, was at the center of Gov. Mary Fallin’s decision to halt the execution of Richard Glossip in the final hour, after officials at the prison realized they had obtained the wrong drugs to kill him with. Following Glossip’s scheduled execution, the Attorney General’s office was made aware of the injection discrepancy and chose to inquire about the situation.
Of course, this case again points to the issues surrounding how and where states are getting their execution drugs.
“I want to assure the public that our investigation will be full, fair and complete and include not only actions on September 30, but any and all actions prior, relevant to the use of potassium acetate and potassium chloride”, Pruitt said.
The two different types of potassium appear to be equal, said David Gortler, an associate professor of pharmacology at Yale University and a drug safety expert.
Potassium chloride is more quickly absorbed by the body, in part because its pH level is considerably lower than blood.
The autopsy report also noted that the syringes were still labelled with tape that said “potassium chloride” on them, however. A copy of the report was sent from the medical examiner’s office to The Washington Post and other news organizations Thursday. “The protocols do not list an alternate for potassium chloride, which is the third drug used”.
Charles Warner was given potassium acetate as an alternative to potassium chloride, as stated by the autopsy report got by the The Oklahoman paper.
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Death penalty opponents heralded the news of potassium acetate’s use in the Warner execution as a singular instance of transparency in a death penalty system shrouded in secrecy, particularly by an Oklahoma law preventing the revelation of information on executioners and drug providers.
