When Clayton Lockett was lethally injected with a three-drug cocktail last year, he writhed and gasped in pain for 43 minutes. Although an autopsy report discovered the execution team incorrectly applied the IV, which caused the drugs to be absorbed into his muscles, the botched execution drew attention to the use of an unregulated sedative, midazolam. Now, a new Atlantic exposé reveals that Oklahoma didn’t just use an unregulated drug, but it desperately searched for sedatives for what may have been political reasons.
According to the Atlantic, Oklahoma was so anxious for execution drugs that the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC) sent a worker to beg for the sedative pentobarbital, before resorting to midazolam. As is common practice in many states, Oklahoma typically relied on compounding pharmacies that sold non-FDA approved drugs for lethal injections. But prior to Lockett’s execution date, the compounding pharmacies, including Oklahoma’s supplier, were pressured to cease sales of execution drugs. As a result, the ODOC was unable to get its hands on the desired sedative and asked ODOC General Counsel Mike Oakley to drive across the state asking individual pharmacies to sell the drug.
Oakley was not a trained medical professional, and believes state leaders were hellbent on finding the execution drug for political gain. ODOC and the attorney general’s office corresponded with the attorney several times a day, and Oakley believes the urgency was driven by upcoming elections. Attorney General Scott Pruitt and Governor Mary Fallin were up for re-election, and did not want to be perceived as weak on crime by not following through on death sentences. Unable to procure pentobarbital in time, the state delayed Lockett’s execution. Oakley and the attorney general’s office eventually learned about midazolam, which compounding pharmacies were willing to produce.
Pharmacologists, attorneys general, and anesthesiologists agree that midazolam is chemically unable to induce a coma-like state the way pentobarbital does. The drug belongs to a separate class of drugs, and is typically used after a surgical procedure — not to put out a patient beforehand. Furthermore, injecting a high dosage of midazolam does not increase the drug’s effectiveness. Those who oppose the drug’s use in lethal injections, including the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Board of Anesthesiology, say its use in executions is ethically unsound, because individuals, like Lockett, can still feel pain while they are being executed.
The controversy surrounding midazolam culminated in a Supreme Court case, which will be decided sometime in June. The pending case will determine whether or not midazolam’s can be used for the executions of three additional inmates in Oklahoma. Justice Elena Kagan argues the drug does not prevent inmates from feeling the sensation of being burned alive that occurs after another part of Oklahoma’s execution drug cocktail is administered — thus violating the Constitution.