Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has issued a last minute stay of execution for Richard Glossip, who was to be killed today. From NBC News:
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin halted the execution of Richard Glossip at the last minute on Wednesday to investigate questions about lethal injection protocols.
The stunning announcement came about an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the execution of Glossip, whose case drew a call for mercy from Pope Francis earlier in the day.
"Last minute questions were raised today about Oklahoma's execution protocol and the chemicals used for lethal injection," Fallin said in a statement.
"After consulting with the attorney general and the Department of Corrections, I have issued a 37 day stay of execution while the state addresses those questions and ensures it is complying fully with the protocols approved by federal courts."
Will research and update more asap.
UPDATE #1: Curious details from the NBC story: Was Oklahoma trying to execute Glossip with dicey, unapproved drugs?
"It appeared that Glossip had run out of time when the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in just before 3 p.m. CT, declining to stop the execution.
But then more than an hour passed without witnesses being taken to the execution unit. A corrections official then abruptly appeared and told reporters that the execution was being called off and a new date of Nov. 6 had been set.
Oklahoma's execution protocols have been under scrutiny since last year's botched lethal injection of Clayton Lockett, who regained consciousness in the middle of the procedure and appeared to be in agony.
Glossip's lawyers mounted a challenge to one of the chemicals in the state's three-drug injection, and convinced the nation's top court to take a look — but ultimately lost the case."
From earlier in the story, about Fallin's surprise announcement of the stay:
"Fallin did not got into detail but did say that the state wanted to find out if it could use potassium acetate in an execution. Usually, the third drug in Oklahoma's cocktail is potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
Grim-faced officials would not say whether they had accidentally received potassium acetate for Glossip's injection. Robert Patton, the director of the Department of Corrections, refused to take questions from reporters."
We don't even need to get into the moral argument about whether the death penalty is wrong [Hint:
IT IS]. But when the State is killing someone, they can't be committing an additional crime by using prohibited methods or illegally obtained drugs to do so. And, of course, grossly violating the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. FYI, Gov. Fallin.
UPDATE #2: So in Fallin's executive order, Oklahoma admits it had the incorrect third drug for the execution protocol, potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride. Unsaid: Was this an accident--misorder, misdelivery? Or an OOPS, we got caught trying to use something we weren't supposed to use? Kinda important, methinks.
UPDATE #3: This piece in the New Yorker provides excellent background on the case: Richard Glossip and the End of the Death Penalty.
--->UPDATE #3.1: More excellent background info, including a link to Sister Helen Prejean's summary of the Glossip case, here in the LATimes: "Richard Glossip's execution postponed: See how he landed on death row."
UPDATE #4: So what's the difference between potassium acetate and potassium chloride? Well, I'm no doctor, but playing one on the Internet--aka a simple Google search--reveals that, for starters, potassium acetate is not FDA approved. Yes, you read that right. From the comprehensive drugs.com entry:
Disclaimer: This drug has not been found by FDA to be safe and effective, and this labeling has not been approved by FDA.
Potassium chloride, on the other hand, IS FDA approved. And in pill form, it is apparently a normal prescription medication used to treat low potassium.
Potential side effects from the unapproved use--execution--of this unapproved drug, potassium acetate? Oh, yeah:
Adverse Reactions:
Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea have been reported. The signs and symptoms of potassium intoxication include paresthesias of the extremities, flaccid paralysis, listlessness, mental confusion, weakness and heaviness of the legs, hypotension, cardiac arrhythmias, heart block, electrocardiographic abnormalities such as disappearance of P waves, spreading and slurring of the QRS complex with development of a biphasic curve, and cardiac arrest.
So, Oklahoma...lemme get this straight. Because this unapproved drug
can kill you, that makes it OK in OK?