Death Penalty News

Dr. Joseph Antognini travels across the nation, being paid over $500 an hour by government officials who rely on him to vouch for their execution protocols. This [article] is part of “ Operating Capital ,” an ongoing Lens discussion about Louisiana’s resumption of executions. Earlier this month, Dr. Joseph Antognini, a California-based retired anesthesiologist, walked into the execution chamber at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. He tried on the air-tight mask that prison staff plan to use to execute Death Row prisoner Jessie Hoffman , using nitrogen hypoxia, a method that Louisiana executioners have never before used.

At trial, he was called "Dr. Doe." That's not his real name, of course. By state law, the identity of the physician hired by the Corrections Department to participate in executions is kept confidential, even in court proceedings. Once the lethal injection process begins, he has 2 main roles — to check if an inmate is unconscious and to check if the inmate has died. How well he fulfills the first role was at issue last week at the trial in Oklahoma City federal court over the lethal injection procedure. More than 2 dozen inmates are asking U.S. District Stephen Friot to rule the state's protocol is in violation of the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Their attorneys specifically complain about the first drug, the sedative midazolam. They say it does not prevent inmates from feeling excruciating pain during the the rest of the procedure. RELATED | Does Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol lead to cruel and unusual punishment? A feder...

Botched executions are a repeated feature of the death penalty system in the United States. But from listening to the after-the-fact accounts of state officials, you would never know. They seem to have developed a shared vocabulary for reassuring the public that there was nothing to see or worry about, even when an execution goes wrong. Take the case of John Marion Grant, put to death by the state of Oklahoma in October of last year. This week an autopsy report was released that revealed just how badly botched his execution was and just how absurd was Oklahoma’s head-in-the-sand response to it. Grant’s execution made headlines when witnesses provided disturbing eyewitness accounts of his suffering. Dan Snyder, a local television reporter and one of the five media members present, offered a minute-by-minute account of what happened. Snyder reported that shortly after the start of the midazolam, the first drug in Oklahoma’s drug cocktail, things started going wrong. Midazolam is a se...

The official cause of death for Oklahoma death row inmate John Grant was ruled as "judicial execution by lethal injection", but an autopsy report released Monday from the Medical Examiner's office reveals more about Grant's time on the execution chamber gurney. On October 28th, the state resumed executions in Oklahoma after a years-long pause due to a series of mishaps.  John Grant, the 1st inmate set to be put to death in the new era of executions in Oklahoma, didn't know his fate until a few hours before his scheduled execution. Dan Snyder, FOX 25's evening anchor, was chosen as a media witness to watch the execution. Shortly after Midazolam, the first drug used in a 3-drug cocktail, was administered, Grant began to convulse. "Almost immediately after the drug was administered, Grant began convulsing, so much so that his entire upper back repeatedly lifted off the gurney," Snyder recalled. Midazolam is the most controversial drug in the state's...

As Oklahoma plans to start 2022 with another execution , it is time for a sober reassessment of the broken practice of lethal injection. As an emergency physician born and raised in Oklahoma, I am deeply troubled by our state’s insistence on using life-saving medicines to end lives. The American Society of Anesthesiologists has noted, “Although lethal injection mimics certain technical aspects of the practice of anesthesia, capital punishment in any form is not the practice of medicine.” Numerous other medical associations have issued similar statements, and physicians do not actually administer Oklahoma’s lethal injections. The Oklahoman recently reported that the state does, however, pay a physician $15,000 per execution — and thousands more for pre-execution training sessions — to perform duties such as helping with IV placement, performing a consciousness check and verifying death. This amount rivals what many doctors make in a month for taking care of patients, highlighting th...

Executions across the nation and public support for them have trended down over the years, but state officials in Oklahoma are moving in the opposite direction. Despite his campaign slogans, Governor Kevin Stitt has failed to make Oklahoma a top 10 state in areas from education to business. Instead, he and his appointed Attorney General John O’Connor have helped to make Oklahoma top ten in dealing out death. After executing two human beings in 2021, Oklahoma has surpassed Virginia as the state that’s carried out the 2nd-most executions since 1976, according to a year-end report from the Death Penalty Information Center. Nationally, the federal government started 2021 with an execution spree of 3 people and the 1st woman in over 6 decades during Trump’s last few days in office. Yet, states across the country have continued a 7-year trend of executing less than 30 people combined per year. To put that in perspective, states executed 98 people in 1999 but only 11 people in 2021. As some s...

Oklahoma death row inmate James Coddington would rather die by the firing squad than by lethal injection. Given the dismal record of lethal injection in that state and across the nation, who can blame him? But no one should underestimate the Kafkaesque cruelty and horror of such a choice. The day before Christmas Eve, U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot ordered a temporary halt to Coddington’s execution, otherwise scheduled for March. The judge’s decision also allowed Coddington to join a pending federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol which includes the controversial drug midazolam. Midazolam has been used in many botched lethal injections, most recently Oklahoma’s November execution of John Marion Grant. Witnesses reported that as soon as the flow of midazolam started, Grant’s “entire body convulsed, shaking and jerking.” The Washington Post quoted Associated Press reporter Sean Murphy who observed Grant “convulsing about 2 dozen times....

Death row inmate Bigler Jobe "Bud" Stouffer II was denied clemency Friday. Gov. Kevin Stitt rejected a recommendation that his sentence be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. "I have thoroughly reviewed the arguments and evidence presented in this case and have determined that clemency should be denied," the governor stated in an executive order. Stouffer, 79, will become the second inmate executed in Oklahoma in more than six years unless he gets a stay in court. The execution is set to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Stouffer is facing execution for the fatal shooting of Putnam City elementary school teacher Linda Reaves on Jan. 24, 1985. He claims he is innocent. His son on Wednesday delivered a petition to the governor's office asking Stitt to grant clemency. Supporters said the petition had been signed nearly 10,000 times. Stouffer was convicted at his first trial and a retrial of murderin...

Strapped down to a gurney, the condemned inmate screamed profanities inside the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. The eyewitnesses to the state's first execution in more than six years agree on that point. RELATED | Oklahoma perfects the botching of executions They also agree convicted murderer John Marion Grant threw up on the gurney Oct. 28 . Their descriptions of what else happened during the lethal injection procedure differ sharply. Was it fast and smooth or horrifying? Did the inmate convulse violently, dry heave or simply cough? Did he go unconscious quickly or appear to be still awake minutes into it? Did he stop breathing 45 seconds after getting the first drug or continue to breathe for several minutes? RELATED |  Oklahoma | Physician: Governor should put an end to 'shameful' executions once and for all Across the country, Grant's execution is widely seen as Oklahoma's latest death penalty failure because of the media repor...