An open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the U.S. Department of Justice, and President Barack Obama:
To Whom It May Concern:
On the night of Tuesday, April 29, 2014, Clayton Lockett died in excruciating pain. After being injected with an experimental cocktail of drugs in the State of Oklahoma's execution chamber in McAlester, OK, Mr. Lockett was declared unconscious, but then began to cry out, writhe, and gasp. After the executioner noted that the "line had burst" in Mr. Lockett's vein, the blinds were drawn, preventing the witnesses from seeing what was happening in the chamber. The execution was halted, but Mr. Lockett began to seize, and ultimately died of a heart attack, 43 minutes after he had been administered the first execution drug.
This scenario, in and of itself, is horrific. But what led to this horror is even more astounding and disgraceful. The combination of drugs used in the execution, and the provenance of those drugs, was kept secret, and we still do not know where the State of Oklahoma procured these chemicals, as the state passed a law preventing the disclosure of this information. While the exact details on the death cocktail and its administration are still unclear, due to the deliberately shadowy nature of Oklahoma's execution process, what we do know is this. Per the New York Times,
"In keeping with the untried drug protocol announced by the Corrections Department this month, Mr. Lockett was first injected with midazolam, a benzodiazepine intended to render the prisoner unconscious. This was to be followed by injections of vecuronium bromide, a paralyzing agent that stops breathing, and then potassium chloride, which stops the heart." (Eckholm, Eric. "One Execution Blocked, Oklahoma Delays the Next," The New York Times, April 29, 2014) However, the state used a much lower (according to some estimates, 5 times lower) dose of the sedative than had been used in previous cases, despite the fact that the combination of the second two drugs, absent sufficient sedation is known to cause "agonizing suffering and pain." If the state knew this, their actions are tantamount to torture, and violate the Constitutional prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishment." If they were not aware, than their actions in using these untested drugs constitutes, at a minimal, criminal negligence.
The decision to use a significantly reduced quantity of the sedative, as well as the lack of information about the compounding pharmacy used to provide the drugs, and the quality control methods used at such facilities, is problematic to say the least. When the Oklahoma Supreme Court, not known as a bastion of progressivism, found this lack of transparency problematic, and ordered a stay of execution, Governor Mary Fallin and her allies in the state legislature coerced and intimidated the Court into dropping the stay, ultimately leading to last night's events.
While Mr. Lockett was convicted of a gruesome and disgusting murder, this does not change the fact that the way he died was in violation of both the laws of this nation and our collective morality as a community.
As a result of these actions, we demand that the United States Department of Justice open a full investigation into Governor Mary Fallon and the Oklahoma State Department of Corrections, and their decision to 1) use an untested combination of chemicals during a state-sanctioned execution, despite the severe risk of severe pain and suffering for the condemned; 2) the secrecy with which these drugs were obtained; and 3) the coercive means used to get the Oklahoma Supreme Court to reverse its stay of execution and essentially fast-track the proceedings, which led to Mr. Lockett's horrible death.
Even setting aside the various other problems with the death penalty, including the danger of wrongful convictions and executions, racial disparities in its implementation, and moral debates regarding the state's right to take the lives of its citizens, the execution of Clayton Lockett shocks the conscience. We demand a full, fair, and exhaustive investigation.
We the undersigned,
Justin M. Collins, et. al.
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