This state of the South has received the green light from the Supreme Court to execute a convict. His kill, Thursday, turned to Calvary. The lethal cocktail used raises bright criticisms.
Le Monde with AFP
The Supreme Court of the United States authorized, Thursday, October 28, Oklahoma to reconnect with the executions, after six years of pause, and to proceed with the injection of a lethal cocktail, suspected of causing Atrocues suffering to convicts.
After receiving the green light, the prison authorities of this Conservative State of the South have injected three substances to John Grant, an African-American 60-year-old, sentenced in 2000 to the death penalty for the murder of an employee of an employee. Prison.
His death was pronounced at 4:21 pm (11:21 pm, Paris Time) But the sentenced to death was shaken by vomiting and convulsions during his execution. This protocol had already been applied in 2014 and 2015, but the apparent sufferings of the detainees had led the state to declare a moratorium on executions.
John Grant “began to convulse shortly after the first product injection,” said a journalist from American Agency AP, Sean Murphy, who attended the scene. According to him, he convulsed about twenty times and vomited several times before going out. “I witnessed fourteen executions, I had never seen that,” added the journalist.
“Serious questions” on product compliance
Calvary has immediately sparked critical. “Oklahoma had sabotaged his last three attempts before his six-year break, but apparently drawn no lesson in this experience,” commented on the France-Press agency (AFP) Robert Dunham, who directs The information center on the death penalty (DPIC).
A few days ago, Oklahoma’s penitentiary services, however, estimated in a statement that their protocol was “human and effective” and that executions could resume.
The lawyer of several convicts, Dale Baich, thought, however, that he remained “serious questions” on the pains caused by this lethal cocktail and on his compliance with the American constitution which prohibits “cruel and unusual sentences”.
“A trial on this specific point must begin in February and the executions should not resume before,” he argued.
Wednesday a court of appeal had given him right and suspended the execution. But the authorities of Oklahoma immediately seized the Supreme Court of the United States to ask him to overthrow this decision. Without explaining his reasons, the high court has finally given in extremis his green light to execution. Its three progressive judges, however, clarified that they did not agree with the conservative majority.
Another execution scheduled in November
The contested protocol combines a sedative, midazolam, and anesthetic, supposed to prevent pain before injection with lethal potassium chloride. It was used in 2014 to run Clayton Lockett, but the convict had agonized for 43 minutes in apparent sufferings.
In 2015, another convict, Charles Warner, had complained that his “body was burning” before going out, the executioners who used a non-compliant product. The same mistake had failed to be reproduced in September 2015 and an execution had been postponed in extremis.
Following these failures, a large jury had opened an investigation and the authorities had agreed to suspend the application of the death penalty. In 2020, they finalized a new protocol and fixed in 2021 several dates of execution, starting with that of John Grant, who in 1998 had killed a woman who worked at the cafeteria of the prison where he was serving a sentence for an armed burglary.
Oklahoma also plans to run November 18 Julius Jones, a 41-year-old African-American, sentenced in 2002 to the death penalty for the murder of a white businessman he has always denied. His file has been the subject of a documentary series, a podcast and he is supported by many associations and personalities like Kim Kardashian, convinced of his innocence.
He lost all his legal remedies, but the Office of the Graces of Oklahoma recommended that his sentence in life detention. The governor has not decided yet.