Oklahoma’s horrible ‘botched execution’ shows again why the death penalty should be abolished

Oklahoma Death Chamber

Tuesday night, Oklahoma tortured a man to death. At 6:23 local time, a doctor began to inject Clayton Lockett with a sedative. Seven minutes later, convinced Lockett was sedated, the doctor then began to inject the second and third drugs in the lethal cocktail that were supposed to end Lockett’s life. But Lockett “began to twitch and gasp” after having been declared unconscious. He called out “man” and “something’s wrong.” He then “struggled violently, groaned and writhed, lifting his shoulders and head from the gurney before the blinds to the [execution] room were lowered 16 minutes after the execution began.” 

Yes, Lockett and Warner’s crimes were utterly heinous. But so was this state-sponsored killing, perhaps even more so in light of Oklahoma Republicans’ bloodthirsty rush to execute Lockett and Warner. We have known for years that the death penalty is “cruel and unusual punishment.” We know that the drug cocktails used in lethal injections were designed to be “visually palatable” at the expense of more effectively preventing excruciating pain. We know that the death penalty is frequently administered in a racially biased fashion. And we know that, as reported this week, “about one in 25 people imprisoned under a death sentence is likely innocent.” It is long past time for the United States to end this barbaric practice.

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Source: The Washington Post, James Downie, April 30, 2014