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More than six months after Clayton Lockett’s execution drew international scrutiny, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections has released related emails requested by the Tulsa World.
Gov. Mary Fallin’s office and the state Department of Public Safety still have not complied with the World’s open records requests for emails related to the April 29 execution.
A spokesman for Fallin said: “Our legal staff is working diligently on this and hopes to get you the records soon.”
DPS spokesman George Brown said that because the agency investigated the execution, it has “considerably more documents to review than the Department of Corrections.”
“We will continue to review and redact necessary information and fulfill our open records requests as timely as possible,” he said.
In the 98 pages of emails released to the World Thursday by the Department of Corrections, there are few discussions about preparing and training for the two executions scheduled for April 29. The emails were sent between March 6 and May 2.
The World requested emails related to the execution to or from DOC Director Robert Patton, Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Anita Trammell, members of the Board of Corrections and other key state employees.
Jerry Massie, a DOC spokesman, said about 20 to 30 emails were withheld due to “attorney-client privilege.”
DOC provided no attachments referenced in the emails. One email — written April 24 and labeled “execution orientation and walk thru” — was a blank page.
Records indicate that Patton, appointed as head of the agency only a few months earlier, did a walk-through of the process a few hours before Lockett’s execution began. It’s unclear from the emails whether Patton took part in any training before that date.
A key critique of the state’s official investigation into Lockett’s execution was that the state lacked key medical equipment and had no contingency plan in case things went wrong. The state’s investigation report, released in September, cited problems with Lockett’s IV as “the single greatest factor” in the botched execution.
Witnesses at Lockett’s execution described him as mumbling and writhing on the gurney after he had been declared unconscious from a combination of drugs Oklahoma had never before used. Lockett died as Gov. Mary Fallin was preparing to stay his execution.
Patton was on the phone with the governor, outside the execution chamber, which hampered communication with those inside with Lockett. Patton said he plans to be inside the chamber, now remodeled, at future executions whenever possible.
Among several remedies recommended for Oklahoma’s execution protocol, the report highlighted the need for improvements in training, communication and a backup plan in case something goes wrong at future executions.
Oklahoma has postponed three scheduled executions until 2015 to secure lethal-injection drugs and complete additional staff training. A federal lawsuit by death-row inmates challenging the state’s death-penalty process is also pending.
Before Lockett was given the lethal injection, a paramedic and doctor in the execution chamber made numerous attempts to start an IV, but most were ultimately unsuccessful. They told investigators they didn’t have the correct types of needles for IV attempts in his neck and groin or an ultrasound machine to guide the insertion.
When Lockett began to “move and make sounds on the execution table” during the execution, the doctor discovered that an IV placed in his femoral vein was failing. They unsuccessfully tried to start another one in his opposite leg.
Inside the execution chamber, the team discussed whether to administer life-saving measures to Lockett — but had no equipment to do so and would have had to call an ambulance to take him to the local hospital, officials said.
At that point, the governor was preparing to issue a stay via telephone from an Oklahoma City Thunder playoff game.
Lockett reportedly was combative when he was being removed from his cell on the morning of his execution, and a stun gun was used on him. He had tried to injure his arms with a razor blade and reportedly took a sedative medication he had hoarded.
Staff emails show that Lockett had been angry when Fallin issued an order staying the execution until April 29. Her order stated that the Oklahoma Supreme Court lacked the authority to issue its own stay in the case.
On April 23, the day after Fallin’s order, a DOC sergeant monitoring Lockett reported: “The offender stated that he knew the Governor did not have the authority to jump over the Oklahoma Supreme Court and order her own ruling just because she didn’t like the stay that was granted.”
Lockett told the sergeant that “he felt he was being played with” and that “he would show them what it felt like to deal with a mother------ that didn’t have anything to lose.”
Lockett was sentenced to die for the 1999 murder of Stephanie Neiman, 19, of Perry.
He and two accomplices abducted Neiman along with two other adults and a baby. They were taken to a rural area of Noble County, where Lockett shot Neiman twice. He ordered an accomplice to bury her despite being told she was still alive.
The execution of Charles Warner, who was scheduled to die immediately after Lockett, is now scheduled for Jan. 15. Warner was sentenced to die for the 1997 rape and murder of an infant girl in Oklahoma City.
