Lockett was sentenced to death for shooting Stephanie Neiman, right, and watching his friends bury her alive
The vein of a U.S. death row inmate “exploded” during his execution, leading to questions over the use of lethal injection. The 38-year-old, who was found guilty of shooting a woman and watching his friends bury her alive, was declared unconscious ten minutes after the first of the state’s new three-drug lethal injection combination was administered. Three minutes later, though, he began breathing heavily, writhing, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow. It later emerged his vein had ruptured. The blinds were eventually lowered to prevent those in the viewing gallery from watching what was happening in the death chamber, and the state’s top prison official eventually called a halt to the proceedings. Clayton Lockett, died 43 minutes after the first injection was administered
The state’s governor ordered an investigation and issued an executive order granting a 2-week delay in executions.
“I have asked the Department of Corrections to conduct a full review of Oklahoma’s execution procedures to determine what happened and why during this evening’s execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett,”
