A U.S. federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of an Oklahoma death row inmate who died in a flawed execution in a procedure that his lawyers said violated the prisoner's constitutional rights.
The judge in Oklahoma said this week that while there may have been aspects of the April 2014 execution of murderer Clayton Lockett that raised questions of negligence, the process did not violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton wrote in his opinion that the claimed violations "are not based on standards that were 'clearly established' at the time of his execution."
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections were among the defendants in the suit.
During Lockett's execution, a doctor and paramedic attempted more than a dozen times to place an IV line, finally landing one in his groin area, an official report from Oklahoma said. That line was improperly placed and eventually fell out, spewing lethal injection chemicals and blood in the death chamber.
ADVERTISEMENT
The execution was called off but Lockett died about 45 minutes after it started from lethal injection chemicals that had accumulated in his tissue.
The suit charged that the state used an untested lethal injection cocktail, compiled by a questionable compounding pharmacy and administered by under-trained and unskilled medical personnel, which violated Lockett's constitutional rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a suit brought by three death row inmates challenging Oklahoma 's method of execution by injection as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Lawyers for the inmates argue the sedative used by Oklahoma , midazolam, cannot achieve the level of unconsciousness required for surgery, making it unsuitable for executions. [ID:nL1N0XQ104]
The state has argued that the use of the drug is appropriate and it plays an essential role in lethal injections.
