In response to the reportedly botched execution of death row inmate Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma on Tuesday, The White House said that anyone would agree that the lethal injection done on the condemned was not humane. Talking to reporters, Press Secretary Jay Carney said that despite the fact that he has yet to discuss the case with US President Barack Obama, Lockett's execution was not done in a standard that the US government wishes to be carried out.
NBC News said witnesses to Lockett's execution saw him apparently in pain and struggled to sit up minutes after he was pronounced unconscious. The condemned's execution was reportedly halted by prison officials, who said that an intravenous line blew. They also said that Lockett died afterward due to a massive heart attack.
Carney said, "He (Obama) has long said that while the evidence suggests that the death penalty does little to deter crime, he believes there are some crimes that are so heinous that the death penalty is merited. In this case, or these cases, the crimes are indisputably horrific and heinous. But it's also the case that we have a fundamental standard in this country that even when the death penalty is justified, it must be carried out humanely. And I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard."
Perhaps in the wake of the botched execution on Tuesday, a scheduled second execution was postponed for at least two weeks while state officials conduct a review on the case. NBC News noted that Lockett's execution was the first that used the new three-drug protocol of the state. According to Lockett's defense lawyers, who demanded that Oklahoma release information regarding the supplier of the drug, the drug is experimental.
Deanna Parker, Lockett's aunt, told NBC News that she agreed with the White House' assessment of her nephew's death. She said, "I wish they would have spoken up before all this."
