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Comment by guest_blog on May 1, 2014 at 5:44pm

Oklahoma inmate Tasered by prison staff on day of botched execution

Timeline report from director of Oklahoma corrections department also recommends indefinite stay of executions in the state

• Read the full timeline of Clayton Lockett's execution

The timeline published by Oklahoma details a chaotic scene in the death chamber before and during the failed execution, as staff struggle to place an intravenous line into Lockett, report that he was unconscious, but then did not spot that the IV connection had failed because they had covered Lockett groin with a sheet, to prevent that area of his body from being seen by witnesses.

The document is notable as much for what it leaves out as for what it reveals: there is no mention of the three minutes in which witnesses saw Lockett thrashing violently on the gurney and attempting to speak, despite having been declared unconscious. Neither does it say anything about what happened in the ten minutes between the procedure being called off and the moment Lockett died, apparently from a heart attack, 43 minutes after his attempted execution began.

Lawyers, state officials and journalists from media groups including the Guardian witnessed the first 16 minutes of the attempted execution before officials drew the blinds that separated the viewing room from the death chamber. For the final three visible minutes, Lockett writhed, groaned, attempted to lift himself off the gurney and tried to speak, despite a doctor having declared him unconscious.

www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/01/oklahoma-clayton-lockett-tase...