(Reuters) - Oklahoma plans on Thursday to conduct its first execution since a faulty lethal injection last April led to an overhaul of its death chamber protocols and prompted President Barack Obama to seek a re-examination of capital punishment in the United States.
An hour before the execution in Oklahoma, Florida is expected to execute a man for murdering a Pensacola banker and sexually assaulting his wife in a 1993 home invasion. The Florida execution is planned for 6 p.m. Eastern Time and the one in Oklahoma for 6 p.m. Central Time.
Oklahoma is set to execute child rapist and murderer Charles Warner after spending months revising how it implements the death penalty to prevent death chamber shortcomings.
Lawyers for Warner are seeking a halt to the proceedings, saying the new protocols are deeply flawed. They have raised concern about the secrecy surrounding the source of the lethal injection cocktail and what is in the mix.
One drug in question that will be used in Oklahoma and Florida is the sedative midazolam, which some experts say cannot achieve the level of unconsciousness required for surgery and therefore is unsuitable for executions. Both states say the drug is effective and their chemical combinations are appropriate.
"We know that midazolam does not satisfy the constitutional requirement of preventing cruel and unusual suffering and that it does not reliably anesthetize prisoners during executions," said Dale Baich, an attorney for Oklahoma death row prisoners.
In April, Oklahoma inmate death row inmate Clayton Lockett, who received midazolam, was seen by witnesses twisting on the death row gurney after troubles with the IV caused the lethal injection mix to be improperly administered.
Officials halted the execution about 15 minutes after it began, but Lockett died about a half hour later from toxic chemicals that accumulated in his tissue.
The inmate to be executed in Florida, Johnny Kormondy, 42, has spent almost half of his life on death row. He was convicted in the fatal shooting of Gary McAdams and the rape of his wife when the couple came home from her 20th high school reunion on July 11, 1993.
His execution would be the 21st carried out under Governor Rick Scott, trying the mark set by former Governor Jeb Bush. Bush served eight years, while Scott is just starting his second four-year term in office.
Source: Reuters, Jon Herskovitz, January 15, 2014
