The Oklahoma Supreme Court stayed two executions on Monday in response to the growing controversy regarding various states’ intentional concealment of execution methods. Despite a ruling by an Oklahoma district court judge in March that found the secrecy laws unconstitutional and the citing of a death row inmate’s right to know how the state intends to execute him, states are still scrambling to replace old lethal injection drugs with new, arguably ineffective and cruel drug combinations.
The harmful and potentially unconstitutional new “drugs cocktails” are the desperate result of a 2011 ban by the European Union on all exports of drugs that will eventually end up in the vein of an inmate in a U.S. execution chamber. The export ban has hampered the availability of drugs, specifically sodium thiopental, utilized in the preferred three-step process to legally execute a person. In addition to severely hampering the availability of the drugs required for the death chamber, the European Union has bolstered the funds of anti-death penalty organizations by over $4.8 million.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals decided in an order last Friday that it does not have to stay the executions due to the Supreme Court’s decision. Now that the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued a stay, it remains unknown whether the Court of Criminal Appeals will abide by the decision. Carlton Lockett and Charles Warner likely did not not file their appeals in the latter court due to lack of evidence to prove cruel and unusual punishment unequivocally. Therefore, Lockett and Warner will remain in limbo until the appeals court makes a decision.
After a “herculean” effort on Oklahoma’s part to locate the necessary drugs, the state has decided to use a combination of three drugs — one to sedate, one to paralyze the nerves and one to stop the heart — previously used in one Florida case. In this case, five times the amount of sedative expected was necessary, raising serious Eighth Amendment concerns in regard to cruel and unusual punishment. Michael Wilson, who was executed in Oklahoma last January, said “I feel my whole body burning” as he died. This pain is suspected to be caused by a contaminated compounded drug, similar to those used nationwide after supplies of the old lethal injection drugs ran out. The manufacturing centers, which are under the supervision of the Food and Drug Administration, are notorious for producing contaminated compounds. While Obama passed the Drug Quality and Security Act last year in an attempt to improve these facilities, the regulations are vague.
Ultimately, executions must abide by the Eighth Amendment and avoid causing the inmate any sort of pain during their passing. While the actions of these inmates on death row are contemptible, they still deserve ethical treatment in both their imprisonment and their execution. It is the federal government’s responsibility to ensure that ethical treatment is carried out.
A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, April 22 print edition. Email the WSN Editorial Board at [email protected].