[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLAHOMA

[Rick Halperin]

Kan. 15









OKLAHOMA----execution

Charles Warner Executed: Baby Killer Is Oklahoma's 1st Execution Since Botched 
Attempt



Oklahoma has executed a death row inmate for killing a baby in 1997 in the 
state's 1st lethal injection since a botched one last spring.

Prison officials declared Charles Frederick Warner dead at 7:28 p.m. CST 
Thursday.

It was the 2nd time Oklahoma used the sedative midazolam as part of a 3-drug 
method, which had been challenged by Warner and other death row inmates as 
presenting an unconstitutional risk of pain and suffering.

Warner was originally scheduled to be executed in April on the same night as 
Clayton Lockett, who began writhing on the gurney, moaning and trying to lift 
his head after he'd been declared unconscious.

A Florida execution using the same method as Oklahoma's was eventually carried 
out after being temporarily put on hold when the condemned killer raised 
similar questions with justices.

Oklahoma prison officials ordered new medical equipment, more extensive 
training for staff and renovated the execution chamber inside the Oklahoma 
State Penitentiary to prevent the kind of problems that arose during the 
execution of Clayton Lockett in April. Lockett writhed on the gurney, moaned 
and tried to lift his head after he'd been declared unconscious, prompting 
prison officials to try to halt his execution before he died.

Attorneys for the state say a failed intravenous line and a lack of training 
led to the problems with Lockett's injection, not the drugs. Still, Oklahoma 
ordered a five-fold increase in the sedative dose.

Both Oklahoma and Florida start their executions with the surgical sedative 
midazolam, which has been challenged in court as ineffective in rendering a 
person properly unconscious before the 2nd and 3rd drugs are administered, 
creating a risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering.

Charles Frederick Warner, the 47-year-old Oklahoma inmate scheduled to die 
Thursday, and 3 other Oklahoma death row inmates asked the U.S. Supreme Court 
to stop their executions. They fear doses of rocuronium bromide, which stops an 
inmate's breathing, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart, could leave 
an inmate in excruciating pain but unable to cry out.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor referred the inmates' request to the whole court, which 
voted 5-4 against a stay of execution.

"The questions before us are especially important now, given States' increasing 
reliance on new and scientifically untested methods of execution," she wrote 
for the dissenters. "Petitioners have committed horrific crimes, and should be 
punished. But the Eighth Amendment guarantees that no one should be subjected 
to an execution that causes searing, unnecessary pain before death."

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt had said Wednesday the state Department 
of Corrections "has responded with new protocols that I believe, prayerfully, 
will provide them more latitude in dealing with exigent circumstances as they 
arise." Before the court Thursday, the state said it had a "sacred duty" to 
enforce its judgments.

By increasing its midazolam dosage to 5 times the amount, Oklahoma plans to 
mirror the exact recipe that Florida has used in 10 successful executions.

But midazolam also was used in problematic executions last year in Arizona and 
Ohio, where inmates snorted and gasped during lethal injections that took 
longer than expected.

"There is a well-established scientific consensus that it cannot maintain a 
deep, comalike unconsciousness," the Oklahoma inmates' attorneys wrote in the 
petition with the nation's highest court.

Florida executed Johnny Shane Kormondy, 42, for killing a man during a 1993 
home-invasion robbery in Pensacola.

Pruitt said state prison officials have been unable to secure other, more 
effective drugs because the manufacturers oppose their use in executions.

"Pentobarbital is best," the attorney general said. "It's worked in our state, 
but the manufacturers of pentobarbital will not sell that drug ... to a state 
for death penalty purposes."

During a 3-day hearing last month before a federal judge in Oklahoma City, the 
Department of Corrections' former top attorney, Michael Oakley, testified that 
midazolam was selected after he talked to counterparts in other states and 
conducted his own online research. Oakley also said he reviewed trial testimony 
from a medical expert who testified about the drug's effectiveness during a 
legal challenge to its use in executions in Florida.

A state investigation into Lockett's botched execution in Oklahoma last year 
determined that a single IV line failed and that the drugs were administered 
locally instead of directly into his bloodstream.

Since then, Oklahoma has ordered new medical equipment such as backup IV lines 
and an ultrasound machine for finding veins, and renovated the execution 
chamber with new audio and video equipment to help the execution team spot 
potential problems.

Warner becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death in Oklahoma this 
year and the 112th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. 
Only Texas (518) has executed more individuals since the death penalty was 
re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976.

Warner becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA 
and the 1397th overall since executions resumed on January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

**********************

Charles Warner Pronounced Dead After Lethal Injection



Convicted killer Charles Warner was pronounced dead following a lethal 
injection.

The execution was delayed while prison officials waited for final word from the 
Supreme Court.

Prison officials announced around 6:30 p.m. that the court had denied the 
appeal.

Warner was sentenced to death for killing a baby in 1997.

Warner was originally scheduled to be executed on the same day as Clayton 
Lockett. Warner's execution was postponed after problems developed during 
Lockett's execution.

(sources: KTUL news)

************************

Death-row inmate Charles Warner executed in McAlester



Death-row inmate Charles Warner was executed Thursday night in McAlester after 
an appeal was denied.

The lethal injection at 7:28 p.m. came after a nearly 9-month delay prompted by 
a botched lethal injection last spring.

Warner and 3 other death row inmates in the state filed a petition with the 
U.S. Supreme Court to stop their executions.

Warner was convicted in the 1997 killing of his girlfriend's 11-month-old 
daughter.

(source: KOCO news)