Oklahoma Inmate Dies of Heart Attack After Botched Execution

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The execution of Clayton Lockett, left, was botched by Oklahoma authorities on Tuesday night. The execution of Charles F. Warner, right, was postponed after Lockett died of a heart attack.

Image: Mashable Composite, Oklahoma Department of Corrections

By Sam Laird2014-04-30 01:57:13 UTC

The state of Oklahoma was supposed to execute two inmates on Tuesday night. Instead it canceled the second execution after the first man scheduled to be executed died, but not in the way he was supposed to.

Four-time felon Clayton D. Lockett was scheduled to be executed via a controversial new drug combination. The drugs were administered. Lockett was declared unconscious. Then everything went wrong.

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Witnesses at the scene reported Lockett calling out “man” and “something’s wrong" after being declared unconscious, The New York Times reported.

About three minutes after being declared unconscious at 6:33 p.m., local time, "Lockett began breathing heavily, writhing on the gurney, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow," according to the Associated Press.

Oklahoma Department of Corrections director Robert Patton halted the execution. Then Lockett died of a heart attack at 7:06 p.m., local time, according to the Times.

"It was extremely difficult to watch," Lockett's attorney, David Autry, told the AP.

Lockett, 38, was convicted of shooting a 19-year-old woman, then watching as accomplices buried her alive after the woman walked in on a robbery in progress.

His execution was controversial because, among other reasons, the drugs used were untested, and the state of Oklahoma refused to reveal where it had acquired them. Other states have also refused in some instances to reveal where they acquired lethal-injection drugs.

After Lockett's botched execution, Patton granted a 14-day stay for the execution of Charles F. Warner, which had been scheduled to begin two hours after Lockett was killed by the state.

For more on Tuesday night's events in Oklahoma, local news station KJRH has a detailed timeline. Meanwhile, Mother Jones on Tuesday morning ran this look at the drugs used in Lockett's execution.

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Topics: U.S., US & World