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This is Botched Executions from Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar.
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For nearly 400 years, states have been putting people to death,
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and some of those executions went horribly wrong. Trap doors
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wouldn't open, flames rose from the electric chair, and needles
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couldn't find a vein. In this series, I'm taking you
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through my book, Botched Executions, one chapter at a time.
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Everything you'll hear comes from the witnesses, the court records,
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and the state's own written reports. Where the accounts disagree,
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you'll hear both. Whatever you believe about capital punishment, these
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are the cases where a state set out to kill
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someone and got it wrong. A word of warning before
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we begin. These are real deaths, described by the people
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who watched them, and some of the details are hard
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to hear. And now, botched executions, four centuries of failed hangings, electrocutions, gassings, injections,
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and firing squads. Chapter 31. Dennis McGuire and the two
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drugs Ohio had never used. Lucasville, Ohio, January 16, 2014.
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By January 2014, Ohio had run out of penobarbital. Lundbeck,
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the Danish company that made it, wouldn't sell it for executions.
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So the state reached for a combination no one in
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the country had used to kill a prisoner. Midazolam, a sedative,
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and hydromorphone, a painkiller, at 10 and 40 milligrams. The
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pair had been written into Ohio's protocol as an intramuscular
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backup for inmates whose veins couldn't be found, and now
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it moved to the IV as the main method. Dennis
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McGuire's lawyers put a Harvard anesthesiologist, Dr. David Weisel, on
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the stand to say McGuire would experience air hunger, which
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he described as a terrifying inability to get a breath,
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for as long as five minutes before the drugs took
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that awareness away. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost wrote that
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there is absolutely no question that Ohio's current protocol presents
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an experiment in lethal injection processes, and let it go
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forward anyway, since the Constitution doesn't demand a pain-free execution.
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He did order the state to photograph and keep the
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vials and syringes. The execution came on the morning of
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January 16, 2014, at Lucasville. Joy Stewart's sister, her husband,
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and their adult son came into the witness room first,
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and the husband opened a Bible and read. McGuire's son, daughter,
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and daughter-in-law sat across from the foot of the gurney.
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McGuire thanked the Stewart family for a letter they'd sent him, said,'
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I' m sorry,' and turned to his children. To my children,
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I love you, he said. I'm going to heaven. I'll
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see you there when you come. As the drugs started,
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just before 10.30, he called out, I love you, I
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love you, and his eyes rolled back. For about five minutes,
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he lay still. Then he snorted, and for at least
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ten minutes, he gasped and choked and snorted for air.
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his chest and stomach heaving, and his left hand clenched
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in a fist— the same hand he'd waved goodbye with
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a few minutes before. One snort was so loud that
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his daughter Amber covered her ears and said,' Oh my God!'
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And his daughter-in-law told her,' Don' t watch!' Alan Johnson of
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the Columbus Dispatch, who'd covered Ohio executions for years, said
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he didn't believe McGuire was conscious of and had no
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idea if he was feeling pain, but it was definitely
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a struggle unlike anything I'd seen in all the executions
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I've witnessed. McGuire was pronounced dead at 10.53, roughly 25
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minutes after the drugs began, which by the AP's count
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made it one of the longest executions since Ohio brought
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the penalty back in 1999. The people of the state
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of Ohio should be appalled at what was done here
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today in their names, said Alan Bonert of the Public
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Defender's Office, who called it a failed, agonizing experiment. Joy
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Stewart's family said in a statement, he's being treated far
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more humanely than he treated her. Joy Stewart was 22,
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newly married, and about 30 weeks pregnant in February 1989
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when McGuire raped her. choked her and cut her throat
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deeply enough to sever the corroded artery and the jugular vein.
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He left her in the woods near Bantus Creek in
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Preble County, west of Dayton, where two hikers found her
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the next day. He tried to pin it on his brother-in-law,
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but DNA testing in 1992 pointed back at him instead.
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A jury convicted him in 1994, and in December 2013,
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he admitted in a letter to Governor John Kasich that
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he'd killed her. In April 2014, the Department of Rehabilitation
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and Correction reviewed its own execution and reported that McGuire
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had been completely unconscious and felt no pain, and that
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the drugs had their intended effect. In the same report,
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it raised the doses to 50 milligrams of each. His
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children sued, and they dropped the suit in February 2015
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after Ohio announced it would stop using the two drugs together.
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Amber McGuire said of the morning that she watched, I
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can't think of any other way to describe it than torture.
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Chapter 32. Clayton Lockett and the Sheet Over the Needle. McAllister, Oklahoma.
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April 29th, 2014. At 6.23 on the evening of April 29th, 2014,
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the full dose of midazolam went into Clayton Lockett through
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a line in his right groin at the Oklahoma State
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Penitentiary in McAllister. and a sheet lay over the needle.
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Oklahoma had never used midazolam before. The state wouldn't say
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where the drugs came from, and the fight over that
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had gone so far that the Oklahoma Supreme Court stayed
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the execution on April 21st. Governor Mary Fallin answered that
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the court had acted outside of its constitutional authority and
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set the execution for April 29th anyway. A state representative
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began circulating articles of impeachment against the five justices who'd
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voted for the stay. And on April 23rd, the court
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dissolved its own stay and ruled the secrecy law constitutional.
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Charles Warner was scheduled to follow Lockett into the same chamber,
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two hours behind him. The Department of Public Safety wrote
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the timeline afterward. The execution team was a paramedic with
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more than 40 years in emergency medical services and a
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physician who'd worked in emergency medicine, and they'd started looking
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for Avain at 5.27 p.m., They tried his left arm,
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his left jugular, his right arm, the subclavian vein under
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his left collarbone, and two places on his right foot.
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Then they went into the femoral vein in his groin
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with a needle an inch and a quarter long, the
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longest the prison had on hand, though the doctor had
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never tried femoral access with a needle that short. At 6.18,
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they called the line good. Warden Anita Trammell had the
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sheet laid over him, insertion point included, which she said
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was normal, and from then on, no one could see
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the needle. Lockett declined to make a statement. At 6.30,
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the doctor found him still conscious. At 6.33, he found
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him unconscious, and the warden signaled for the vecuronium bromide
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and the potassium chloride to follow. About three minutes after that,
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Lockett began to breathe heavily, writhe, clench his teeth, and
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strain to lift his head off the pillow. Ziva Branstetter
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of the Tulsa World saw him roll his head from
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side to side and lift his head and shoulders off
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the gurney and heard him say, man. Other witnesses heard,
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something's wrong. The state's investigators wrote later that the witnesses'
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recollections of what he said varied greatly. Therefore, it was
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difficult to determine what was said, if anything. The doctor
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lifted the sheet. On the skin of Lockett's groin, there
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was clear liquid and blood. And under it, a swelling
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that the doctor described as smaller than a tennis ball
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and larger than a golf ball. The drugs had been
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going into tissue. At 6.42 by the state's clock, 6.39
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by the reporters, the blinds came down and the doctor
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tried the left femoral vein and hit the artery instead.
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We've got blood everywhere, the paramedic remembered saying. Trammell told
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investigators it was a bloody mess. and said she'd been
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kind of panicking, thinking, he's coming out of this and
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it's not working. There was no second set of drugs
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and no other vein, and at 6.56, Robert Patton, the
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director of corrections, stopped the execution. At 7.06, the doctor
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pronounced Lockett dead. That night, Patton told reporters the vein
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had exploded and that Lockett had died of a heart attack.
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Two autopsies said otherwise. Dr. Joseph Cohen, a pathologist hired
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by lawyers for other Oklahoma death row prisoners, found Lockett's
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veins in excellent integrity for IV access and evidence of
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failed catheter access, and the state's autopsy done in Dallas
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listed the cause of death as judicial execution by lethal injection.
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The state's own investigators found that the drugs had gone
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into the tissue around the needle while no one was
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watching the lines. In June 1999, Lockett and two other men,
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one of them, Sean Mathis, kicked in the door of
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Bobby Bourne's house in Perry, Oklahoma, beat him, bound him
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and his guests with duct tape, and raped one of
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the women. Nineteen-year-old Stephanie Neiman had arrived during the break-in.
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They drove everyone to a country road in Kay County,
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where Mathis dug a grave. Lockett said,' Someone has got
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to go,' and shot Neiman with a shotgun. The gun jammed,
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and while he fixed it, her screams could be heard
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from the ditch. He shot her again, and Mathis buried her.
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Years later, a federal appeals court said he had an
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accomplice bury her alive. Lockett confessed in his third interview
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with police, and a jury sentenced him to death. The
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night Lockett died, Fallon stayed Warner's execution for two weeks
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and then ordered the Department of Public Safety to investigate.
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Its September report found that no one had been watching
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the I.V., that the protocol had limited provisions for contingencies,
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and that once things went wrong, the staff were unaware
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of how to proceed. Oklahoma raised its midazolam dose to
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500 milligrams and executed Warner on January 15, 2015. After
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the drugs started, he said, My body is on fire.
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That June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's use
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of midazolam 5 to 4 in a case that carried
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the name of another Oklahoma prisoner, Richard Glossop. On September 30, 2015,
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Glossop's own execution was called off at the last minute
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because the wrong drug had arrived, potassium acetate instead of
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potassium chloride, and within days, it came out that Warner's
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autopsy had shown the same wrong drug used on him
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in January. Chapter 33. Joseph Wood and the 640 Gasps. Florence, Arizona.
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July 23rd. 2014. Two days before Arizona put Joseph Wood
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to death, Chief Judge Alex Kaczynski of the Ninth Circuit
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Court of Appeals had something to say. A three-judge panel
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had stayed the execution on July 19, 2014, over Arizona's
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refusal to say where its drugs came from or what
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qualifications the people giving them had. And when the full
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court declined to take the matter up, Kaczynski dissented. Using
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drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out
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executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of
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executions by making them look serene and peaceful, like something
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any of us might have experienced in our final moments,
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he wrote. The guillotine is probably best, but seems inconsistent
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with our national ethos, and the electric chair, hanging in
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the gas chamber, are each subject to occasional mishaps. The
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firing squad strikes me as the most promising. The next day,
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the Supreme Court lifted the stay in three sentences. Wood
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had been with Debra Dietz since 1984 and had beaten
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her for years. She left him in July 1989 and
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got an order of protection. On the morning of August 7th,
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he walked into her family's auto paint and body shop
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in Tucson, waited for her father Eugene to hang up
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the phone, shot him once in the chest from four
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feet away, and smiled. Debra was trying to telephone for help.
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He grabbed her around the neck from behind, put the
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revolver against her chest, said, I told you I was
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going to do it, I have to kill you, and
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shot her twice. When he picked the gun back up
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and raised it toward the police officers, they shot him.
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He'd been on Arizona's death row since 1991. Arizona had
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two drugs for him, midazolam and hydromorphone, the pair Ohio
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had used on Dennis McGuire six months earlier. At the
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state prison in Florence, the first dose went in at 1.52 p.m.
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on July 23rd, 2014, 50 milligrams of each. And at 1.57,
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the IV team leader said Wood was sedated. About 10
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minutes after the first dose, his mouth opened and he gasped.
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And then he did it again. And again. Every 5
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to 12 seconds. Michael Kiefer of the Arizona Republic started
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making hash marks in his notebook. Troy Hayden of Fox
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10 said afterward, it was like watching a fish on
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the shore gulping air. On the other side of the glass,
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the prison's log shows a second dose at 2.08, a
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third at 2.13, and more on through the afternoon, with
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the director telephoning the governor's office and the attorney general's
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office between pushes and the team leader checking seven more
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times and recording, inmate remains sedated, no issues with IV. Meanwhile,
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Wood's lawyers filed an emergency motion and got Judge Neil
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Wake of the Federal District Court on the telephone. Robin
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Conrad told the judge her client had been gasping, snorting,
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and unable to breathe and not dying since 157. Jeff Zick,
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for the state, said the medical team considered Wood effectively
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brain-dead and that the director couldn't change course now. While
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they argued, Zick broke in. I just learned that the
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IV team leader has confirmed Mr. Wood's death. It was 3.49 p.m.,
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an hour and 57 minutes after the first drug, and
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Kiefer had counted about 640 gasps. Records released nine days
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later showed 15 doses, 750 milligrams of each drug, where
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the protocol called for one. Governor Jan Brewer said Wood
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died in a lawful manner and by eyewitnesses and medical accounts,
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he did not suffer, and ordered a review. Dale Bache,
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Wood's lawyer, said the experiment with the two drugs failed
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today in Arizona. Deborah Dietz's sister, Jean Brown, had watched
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from the same room, and when reporters asked whether Wood
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had suffered, she said, You don't know what excruciating is.
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Excruciating is seeing your dad lying there in a pool
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of blood, seeing your sister lying there in a pool
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of blood. That's excruciating. This man deserved it. Her husband,
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Richard Brown, who said he had seen Debra shot in 1989, asked,
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Why didn't they give him a bullet? Why didn't we
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give him Drano? The review Arizona commissioned released that December
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said the team hadn't violated the protocol, even with the
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15 doses, and called the gasps normal responses of a
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dying body. The state dropped the two-drug combination anyway. Its
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midazolam expired in 2016. In 2017, It settled the prisoner's
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lawsuit by agreeing to a single drug and giving up
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the director's power to improvise once an execution had begun.
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And it executed no one at all. Until 2022. On
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September 30th, 2026, at 7.26 p.m., the curtain opens in Tennessee,
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and Krista Pike says, I'm at peace, and I'm ready
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to go. At 7.46 p.m., The curtain closes, and a
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reporter writes that she is clearly still alive. At 8.53,
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after a second dose, the witnesses are sent out, and
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she's still breathing. For four centuries, each new method was
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sold as the fix for the last. The long drop,
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the electric chair, gas, and finally the needle, sold as
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a medical procedure. A scholar went through 8,776 American executions
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from 1890 to 2010. 276 went wrong, and the needle
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had the highest failure rate of them all. In our
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quest for humane ways to kill someone, we've sometimes created
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more gruesome and torturous ones. Botched Executions Four centuries of
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failed hangings, electrocutions, gassings, injections, and firing squads. On Amazon,
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in Kindle, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited. Weirddarkness.com slash botched executions. Interlude.
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The rest of the list. 1985 to 1998. 16 more
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lethal injections from these years are on the list. Most
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of them are the same story. A search for a
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vein that ran 20 minutes or an hour, and critics
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of the list, Michael Conklin among them, have argued that
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a long vein search isn't a botched execution at all.
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They're here because the list counts them, and because together
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they show how ordinary the trouble was. Stephen Peter Morin, Texas,
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March 13th, 1985 Morin was a drifter and cocaine addict
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who faced death sentences for three killings. The one carried
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out was for shooting Carrie Marie Scott outside a San
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Antonio restaurant in December 1981. He'd pleaded guilty to it
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at trial, before the jury and before God. He was
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strapped down at 12.03 a.m. and lay there for 41
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minutes while medics who said his veins were shot by
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drug use probed both arms and a leg. A saline
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line finally went in at 12.44 and he was pronounced
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dead at 12.55. His last words were a prayer that ended,
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Lord Jesus, I commit my soul to you. And he
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blew a kiss to a woman in the witness room.
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On the ride from death row, he'd asked the guards
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if they'd like to stop and go fishing. Randy Lynn Woolz, Texas,
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August 20th, 1986 Woolz beat, cut, and burned drive-in theater
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ticket seller Betty Stotts in her booth in Kerryville in
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June 1979, and he was found sitting in her car
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on the lot with the money. Six days before his execution,
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the Fifth Circuit threw out his claim that a conscious
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man under the paralytic drug would feel shortness of breath
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and suffocation over a two-to-three-minute period, calling the showing far
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00:20:01.829 --> 00:20:05.509
short of what the law required. On the gurney, he
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00:20:05.569 --> 00:20:08.670
helped the team. He was helpful in flexing his fist
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00:20:08.730 --> 00:20:11.390
and attempting to make his veins come out, Attorney General
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Jim Maddox said. He said because he was a heavy
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drug user, people would have a difficult time finding his veins.
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He was pronounced dead at 12.23 a.m. Conklin singles out
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this entry as the list's thinnest. Elliot Rod Johnson, Texas,
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June 24, 1987. Johnson was one of four men who
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robbed Granado's jewelry store in Beaumont in April 1982. The owner,
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00:20:39.079 --> 00:20:42.579
Gio Granato, and Arturo Melendez were shot dead, and by
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Johnson's own confession, it was his accomplice who fired. His veins,
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Maddox said afterward, were not suitable for injection after years
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of drug abuse, and the execution took nearly an hour.
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I'm very sorry for bringing all the hurt and pain
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to everyone who loved me so much, he said. That day,
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he'd spoken by phone with his mother, who was serving
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a theft sentence in another Texas prison. Stephen McCoy, Texas,
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00:21:10.490 --> 00:21:16.059
May 24th, 1989. On New Year's Eve 1980, after a
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car accident on a Houston freeway, McCoy, James Pastor, and
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Gary LeBlanc picked up Cynthia Johnson, offering help, and raped
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and strangled her in a warehouse. Pastor drove a nail
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through her nose. When the drugs went into McCoy, his
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chest heaved, he gasped and choked, and his back arched
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off the gurney. a male witness fainted and fell into another.
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His lawyer, Karen Zellers, who was in the room, thought
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for a moment the whole row would go down. The
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Attorney General conceded he seemed to have had a somewhat
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stronger reaction and offered that the drugs might have been
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administered in a heavier dose or more rapidly. He made
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no statement. Charles Walker, Illinois, September 12, 1990 Illinois' first
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00:22:04.420 --> 00:22:08.210
execution in 28 years was a volunteer who'd given up
326
00:22:08.250 --> 00:22:12.549
his appeals. In June 1983, he'd come upon Kevin Paul
327
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and Sharon Winker fishing on Silver Creek near Muscoota. He
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00:22:16.930 --> 00:22:19.829
robbed Paul of $ 40 and tied them both to trees,
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and when Paul said he recognized him, Walker shot them.
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At Stateville, he looked at the 23 witnesses, told the warden,
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tell Jesse and tell Vi that I'll see them later.
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You're a good man. Took four heavy breaths, and died
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quietly in 11 minutes. Two years later, Gary Sutterfield, the
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engineer Illinois had borrowed from the Missouri prison system to
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help run it, said a kink in the tubing had
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stopped the drugs and the needle had been put in
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pointing toward Walker's fingers instead of his heart. Three physicians
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had taken part. Robin Leroy Parks, Oklahoma, March 10, 1992.
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Parks shot a gas station attendant, Abdullah Ibrahim, in Oklahoma
340
00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:06.390
City in August 1977 because he was afraid Ibrahim would
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report his stolen credit card. Two minutes after the drugs started,
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the muscles of his jaw, neck, and abdomen began to spasm,
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and he gasped and gagged for about 11 minutes before
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he died, by the account of Wayne Green of the
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Tulsa World. It was overwhelming. Stunning, disturbing, he wrote, an
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intrusion into a moment so personal that reporters, taught for
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years that intrusion is their business, had trouble looking into
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each other's eyes after it was over. Billy Wayne White, Texas,
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April 23, 1992 White was two months short of 20
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when he shot Martha Spinks in the face during a
351
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robbery of her furniture store in Houston in August 1976,
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and her husband wrestled the gun away and shot White
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in the groin. Sixteen years later, it took 47 minutes
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to find a vein in his hand, and he was
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pronounced dead at 12.58 a.m. He was very compliant, very courteous,
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very cooperative, the prison director, Andy Collins, said. In fact,
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he attempted to assist us. Justin Lee May, Texas, May 7, 1992.
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May shot Frank and Jeanette Murdaugh in their Western Auto
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Store in Freeport in 1978 and and walked out with
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an armload of guns. UPI led its story on his
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execution with the news that he died coughing and gasping.
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Michael Grochik of the Associated Press wrote that, compared to
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other recent executions in Texas, May's reaction to the drugs
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was more violent. He went into a coughing spasm, groaned
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and gasped, lifted his head from the death chamber gurney,
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and would have arched his back if he had not
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been belted down. After he stopped breathing, his eyes and
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mouth remained open. He'd married his wife by proxy from
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death row, and she watched. Emmett Foster, Missouri, May 3rd,
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1995 Foster was convicted of shooting Travis Walker four times
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00:25:03.299 --> 00:25:06.700
in the head in Walker's home in November 1983. A
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00:25:06.769 --> 00:25:11.730
woman shot alongside Walker survived and identified him. At Potosi,
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seven minutes after the drugs began, he was conscious and gasping,
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and the blinds came down. They stayed down for close
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to half an hour, and when they went up at 12.36 a.m.,
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00:25:21.799 --> 00:25:25.160
the prison announced he had died three minutes before. The
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coroner concluded that the straps holding him to the gurney
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had been pulled so tight they hampered the flow of
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the drugs. Two witnesses refused to sign the affidavit saying
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they had seen the execution because they hadn't. An autopsy
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his mother paid for found he died of pulmonary edema,
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not the heart attack the third drug is meant to cause.
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Richard Towns Jr., Virginia, January 23, 1996. Towns shot a
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Virginia Beach convenience store clerk, Virginia Goebel, during a robbery
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in April 1985, and two jurors later swore they'd have
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spared him had they known a life sentence meant life.
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His last words were, I'm innocent. That's all I have
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to say. I'm innocent. The Virginian pilot reported that he
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died with no complications, prison officials said. The New York
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00:26:16.990 --> 00:26:20.349
Times reported that the team spent 22 minutes trying his
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arms and put the needle through the top of his
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right foot. Tommy J. Smith, Indiana, July 18, 1996. Indiana's
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00:26:31.339 --> 00:26:33.799
first lethal injection was of a man who had shot
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a homicide detective, Sergeant Jack Orberg, three times through a
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barricaded door in Indianapolis in December 1980. The prison said
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the primary procedure was could not be completed and a
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catheter had to be put in Smith's foot. The fuller
398
00:26:48.250 --> 00:26:50.849
account came out later. The team worked on him for
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00:26:50.849 --> 00:26:54.069
16 minutes, then called in a physician who gave him
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00:26:54.130 --> 00:26:57.269
a local anesthetic, tried twice to put the line into
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00:26:57.309 --> 00:27:00.529
his neck, and finally got it into his foot 49
402
00:27:00.529 --> 00:27:04.440
minutes in. He was pronounced dead 20 minutes after that,
403
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an hour and nine minutes from the start. The Indianapolis
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00:27:09.230 --> 00:27:11.789
Star found that the doctor's part in it violated the
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00:27:11.869 --> 00:27:15.609
ethics rule of both the American and Indiana medical associations.
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Scott Don Carpenter, Oklahoma, May 8, 1997 Carpenter was 22,
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a volunteer who had given up his appeals and had
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00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:31.180
stabbed a bait shop owner, A.J. Kelly, in the neck
409
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at Lake Eufaula in February 1994 for about $ 80 in
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gas and merchandise. As the drugs took effect, he began
411
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to gasp and shake, followed by a guttural sound, multiple spasms,
412
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and gasping for air, the Tulsa World reported, until he
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stopped moving three minutes later. He was pronounced dead 11
414
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minutes after the drugs began. Michael Eugene Elkins, South Carolina,
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00:27:58.259 --> 00:28:03.960
June 13, 1997 In July 1990, Elkins stopped to help
416
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:06.880
a stranded motorist, Patricia Witt, on the shoulder of I-95
417
00:28:08.059 --> 00:28:11.220
and stabbed her eight times. She died on the road,
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asphyxiated by her own blood, in the court's words. He
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was the first man executed in South Carolina's new death
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chamber in Columbia. His body was swollen from liver and
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spleen disease, and it took the team nearly an hour
422
00:28:23.940 --> 00:28:26.720
to find a vein. The one that finally held was
423
00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:29.839
in his neck. He tried to help.' Should I lean
424
00:28:29.859 --> 00:28:35.299
my head down a little bit?' he asked. Joseph Cannon, Texas,
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00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:42.390
April 22, 1998 Kinnan was 17 in 1977 when he
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00:28:42.410 --> 00:28:45.259
shot Ann Walsh seven times in her San Antonio home.
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She was a lawyer who had taken him in because
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her brother, his court-appointed attorney, had asked her to. After
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00:28:52.099 --> 00:28:54.960
his final statement, the drugs began and the needle came
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00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:57.759
out of his arm. The prison said it blew out.
431
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By the Death Penalty Information Center's account, he lay back,
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00:29:01.900 --> 00:29:05.079
closed his eyes, and said to the witnesses, It's come undone.
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The curtain closed for 15 minutes while the line was
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put back and when it opened, he was crying and
435
00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:13.619
made a second statement. I kind of lost my cool
436
00:29:13.640 --> 00:29:16.049
a while ago, he said. I'm sorry for what I
437
00:29:16.089 --> 00:29:19.910
did to your mom. Walsh's five sons were among the witnesses.
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00:29:21.890 --> 00:29:28.390
Gennaro Ruiz Camacho, Texas, August 26, 1998. Camacho, a Dallas
439
00:29:28.430 --> 00:29:32.829
drug trafficker, invaded Sam Wright's house in May 1988 over
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00:29:33.430 --> 00:29:36.809
a $ 20, 000 debt, shot an employee who walked in, and
441
00:29:36.849 --> 00:29:39.940
took Wright's girlfriend and three-year-old son, who were killed in
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00:29:39.980 --> 00:29:43.799
Oklahoma days later. The execution was delayed about two hours,
443
00:29:43.859 --> 00:29:46.940
the AP reported, in part because the team couldn't find
444
00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:50.029
veins in his arms.' I' ll be waiting for you in heaven,'
445
00:29:50.180 --> 00:30:00.400
he said.' Okay. Adios.' Roderick Aveda, Nevada, October 5, 1998
446
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:03.680
Aveda shot a former girlfriend, Donna Martin, twice in the
447
00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:06.880
head in Las Vegas in 1989, sitting on her back
448
00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:10.079
and holding her by the hair. He refused the sedative
449
00:30:10.140 --> 00:30:13.500
Nevada usually gave an hour before, wanting a clear head,
450
00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:16.259
and when the team had trouble with his collapsed veins,
451
00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:19.700
he suggested where to put the second needle. It took
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25 minutes to find a vein by the Las Vegas
453
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Review-Journal's count. The prison director's version was, everything went smoothly.
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Thanks for listening. I've been reading from my new book,
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00:30:33.619 --> 00:30:39.279
Botched Executions, Four Centuries of Failed Hangings, Electrocutions, Gassings, Injections,
456
00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:42.680
and Firing Squads. If you'd like a list of sources
457
00:30:42.779 --> 00:30:44.980
I used for this episode, and for the book it's
458
00:30:45.039 --> 00:30:48.980
narrated from, you can find the full list at WeirdDarkness.com
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00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:52.839
slash Botched Executions. Scroll to the bottom of the page
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for the sources used. If you'd rather not wait for
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the next section to be shared in the podcast, the
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whole book is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback,
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as well as Kindle Unlimited.
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This is Botched Executions from Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar.
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For nearly 400 years, states have been putting people to death,
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and some of those executions went horribly wrong. Trap doors
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wouldn't open, flames rose from the electric chair, and needles
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couldn't find a vein. In this series, I'm taking you
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through my book, Botched Executions, one chapter at a time.
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Everything you'll hear comes from the witnesses, the court records,
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and the state's own written reports. Where the accounts disagree,
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you'll hear both. Whatever you believe about capital punishment, these
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are the cases where a state set out to kill
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someone and got it wrong. A word of warning before
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we begin. These are real deaths, described by the people
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who watched them, and some of the details are hard
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to hear. And now, botched executions, four centuries of failed hangings, electrocutions, gassings, injections,
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and firing squads. Chapter 31. Dennis McGuire and the two
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drugs Ohio had never used. Lucasville, Ohio, January 16, 2014.
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By January 2014, Ohio had run out of penobarbital. Lundbeck,
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the Danish company that made it, wouldn't sell it for executions.
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So the state reached for a combination no one in
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the country had used to kill a prisoner. Midazolam, a sedative,
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and hydromorphone, a painkiller, at 10 and 40 milligrams. The
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pair had been written into Ohio's protocol as an intramuscular
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backup for inmates whose veins couldn't be found, and now
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it moved to the IV as the main method. Dennis
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McGuire's lawyers put a Harvard anesthesiologist, Dr. David Weisel, on
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the stand to say McGuire would experience air hunger, which
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he described as a terrifying inability to get a breath,
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for as long as five minutes before the drugs took
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that awareness away. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost wrote that
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there is absolutely no question that Ohio's current protocol presents
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an experiment in lethal injection processes, and let it go
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forward anyway, since the Constitution doesn't demand a pain-free execution.
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He did order the state to photograph and keep the
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vials and syringes. The execution came on the morning of
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January 16, 2014, at Lucasville. Joy Stewart's sister, her husband,
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and their adult son came into the witness room first,
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and the husband opened a Bible and read. McGuire's son, daughter,
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and daughter-in-law sat across from the foot of the gurney.
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McGuire thanked the Stewart family for a letter they'd sent him, said,'
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I' m sorry,' and turned to his children. To my children,
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I love you, he said. I'm going to heaven. I'll
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see you there when you come. As the drugs started,
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just before 10.30, he called out, I love you, I
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love you, and his eyes rolled back. For about five minutes,
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he lay still. Then he snorted, and for at least
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ten minutes, he gasped and choked and snorted for air.
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his chest and stomach heaving, and his left hand clenched
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in a fist— the same hand he'd waved goodbye with
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a few minutes before. One snort was so loud that
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his daughter Amber covered her ears and said,' Oh my God!'
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And his daughter-in-law told her,' Don' t watch!' Alan Johnson of
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the Columbus Dispatch, who'd covered Ohio executions for years, said
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he didn't believe McGuire was conscious of and had no
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idea if he was feeling pain, but it was definitely
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a struggle unlike anything I'd seen in all the executions
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I've witnessed. McGuire was pronounced dead at 10.53, roughly 25
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minutes after the drugs began, which by the AP's count
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made it one of the longest executions since Ohio brought
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the penalty back in 1999. The people of the state
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of Ohio should be appalled at what was done here
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today in their names, said Alan Bonert of the Public
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Defender's Office, who called it a failed, agonizing experiment. Joy
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Stewart's family said in a statement, he's being treated far
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more humanely than he treated her. Joy Stewart was 22,
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newly married, and about 30 weeks pregnant in February 1989
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when McGuire raped her. choked her and cut her throat
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deeply enough to sever the corroded artery and the jugular vein.
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He left her in the woods near Bantus Creek in
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Preble County, west of Dayton, where two hikers found her
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the next day. He tried to pin it on his brother-in-law,
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but DNA testing in 1992 pointed back at him instead.
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A jury convicted him in 1994, and in December 2013,
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he admitted in a letter to Governor John Kasich that
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he'd killed her. In April 2014, the Department of Rehabilitation
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and Correction reviewed its own execution and reported that McGuire
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had been completely unconscious and felt no pain, and that
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the drugs had their intended effect. In the same report,
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it raised the doses to 50 milligrams of each. His
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children sued, and they dropped the suit in February 2015
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after Ohio announced it would stop using the two drugs together.
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Amber McGuire said of the morning that she watched, I
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can't think of any other way to describe it than torture.
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Chapter 32. Clayton Lockett and the Sheet Over the Needle. McAllister, Oklahoma.
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April 29th, 2014. At 6.23 on the evening of April 29th, 2014,
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the full dose of midazolam went into Clayton Lockett through
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a line in his right groin at the Oklahoma State
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Penitentiary in McAllister. and a sheet lay over the needle.
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Oklahoma had never used midazolam before. The state wouldn't say
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where the drugs came from, and the fight over that
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had gone so far that the Oklahoma Supreme Court stayed
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the execution on April 21st. Governor Mary Fallin answered that
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the court had acted outside of its constitutional authority and
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set the execution for April 29th anyway. A state representative
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began circulating articles of impeachment against the five justices who'd
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voted for the stay. And on April 23rd, the court
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dissolved its own stay and ruled the secrecy law constitutional.
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Charles Warner was scheduled to follow Lockett into the same chamber,
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two hours behind him. The Department of Public Safety wrote
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the timeline afterward. The execution team was a paramedic with
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more than 40 years in emergency medical services and a
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physician who'd worked in emergency medicine, and they'd started looking
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for Avain at 5.27 p.m., They tried his left arm,
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his left jugular, his right arm, the subclavian vein under
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his left collarbone, and two places on his right foot.
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Then they went into the femoral vein in his groin
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with a needle an inch and a quarter long, the
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longest the prison had on hand, though the doctor had
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never tried femoral access with a needle that short. At 6.18,
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they called the line good. Warden Anita Trammell had the
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sheet laid over him, insertion point included, which she said
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was normal, and from then on, no one could see
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the needle. Lockett declined to make a statement. At 6.30,
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the doctor found him still conscious. At 6.33, he found
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him unconscious, and the warden signaled for the vecuronium bromide
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and the potassium chloride to follow. About three minutes after that,
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Lockett began to breathe heavily, writhe, clench his teeth, and
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strain to lift his head off the pillow. Ziva Branstetter
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of the Tulsa World saw him roll his head from
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side to side and lift his head and shoulders off
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the gurney and heard him say, man. Other witnesses heard,
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something's wrong. The state's investigators wrote later that the witnesses'
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recollections of what he said varied greatly. Therefore, it was
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difficult to determine what was said, if anything. The doctor
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lifted the sheet. On the skin of Lockett's groin, there
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was clear liquid and blood. And under it, a swelling
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that the doctor described as smaller than a tennis ball
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and larger than a golf ball. The drugs had been
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going into tissue. At 6.42 by the state's clock, 6.39
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by the reporters, the blinds came down and the doctor
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tried the left femoral vein and hit the artery instead.
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We've got blood everywhere, the paramedic remembered saying. Trammell told
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investigators it was a bloody mess. and said she'd been
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kind of panicking, thinking, he's coming out of this and
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it's not working. There was no second set of drugs
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and no other vein, and at 6.56, Robert Patton, the
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director of corrections, stopped the execution. At 7.06, the doctor
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pronounced Lockett dead. That night, Patton told reporters the vein
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had exploded and that Lockett had died of a heart attack.
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Two autopsies said otherwise. Dr. Joseph Cohen, a pathologist hired
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by lawyers for other Oklahoma death row prisoners, found Lockett's
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veins in excellent integrity for IV access and evidence of
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failed catheter access, and the state's autopsy done in Dallas
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listed the cause of death as judicial execution by lethal injection.
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The state's own investigators found that the drugs had gone
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into the tissue around the needle while no one was
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watching the lines. In June 1999, Lockett and two other men,
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one of them, Sean Mathis, kicked in the door of
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Bobby Bourne's house in Perry, Oklahoma, beat him, bound him
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and his guests with duct tape, and raped one of
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the women. Nineteen-year-old Stephanie Neiman had arrived during the break-in.
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They drove everyone to a country road in Kay County,
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where Mathis dug a grave. Lockett said,' Someone has got
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to go,' and shot Neiman with a shotgun. The gun jammed,
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and while he fixed it, her screams could be heard
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from the ditch. He shot her again, and Mathis buried her.
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Years later, a federal appeals court said he had an
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accomplice bury her alive. Lockett confessed in his third interview
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with police, and a jury sentenced him to death. The
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night Lockett died, Fallon stayed Warner's execution for two weeks
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and then ordered the Department of Public Safety to investigate.
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Its September report found that no one had been watching
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the I.V., that the protocol had limited provisions for contingencies,
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and that once things went wrong, the staff were unaware
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of how to proceed. Oklahoma raised its midazolam dose to
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500 milligrams and executed Warner on January 15, 2015. After
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the drugs started, he said, My body is on fire.
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That June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's use
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of midazolam 5 to 4 in a case that carried
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the name of another Oklahoma prisoner, Richard Glossop. On September 30, 2015,
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Glossop's own execution was called off at the last minute
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because the wrong drug had arrived, potassium acetate instead of
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potassium chloride, and within days, it came out that Warner's
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autopsy had shown the same wrong drug used on him
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in January. Chapter 33. Joseph Wood and the 640 Gasps. Florence, Arizona.
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July 23rd. 2014. Two days before Arizona put Joseph Wood
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to death, Chief Judge Alex Kaczynski of the Ninth Circuit
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Court of Appeals had something to say. A three-judge panel
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had stayed the execution on July 19, 2014, over Arizona's
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refusal to say where its drugs came from or what
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qualifications the people giving them had. And when the full
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court declined to take the matter up, Kaczynski dissented. Using
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drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out
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executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of
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executions by making them look serene and peaceful, like something
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any of us might have experienced in our final moments,
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he wrote. The guillotine is probably best, but seems inconsistent
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with our national ethos, and the electric chair, hanging in
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the gas chamber, are each subject to occasional mishaps. The
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firing squad strikes me as the most promising. The next day,
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the Supreme Court lifted the stay in three sentences. Wood
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had been with Debra Dietz since 1984 and had beaten
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her for years. She left him in July 1989 and
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got an order of protection. On the morning of August 7th,
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he walked into her family's auto paint and body shop
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in Tucson, waited for her father Eugene to hang up
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the phone, shot him once in the chest from four
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feet away, and smiled. Debra was trying to telephone for help.
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He grabbed her around the neck from behind, put the
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revolver against her chest, said, I told you I was
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going to do it, I have to kill you, and
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shot her twice. When he picked the gun back up
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and raised it toward the police officers, they shot him.
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He'd been on Arizona's death row since 1991. Arizona had
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two drugs for him, midazolam and hydromorphone, the pair Ohio
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had used on Dennis McGuire six months earlier. At the
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state prison in Florence, the first dose went in at 1.52 p.m.
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on July 23rd, 2014, 50 milligrams of each. And at 1.57,
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the IV team leader said Wood was sedated. About 10
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minutes after the first dose, his mouth opened and he gasped.
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And then he did it again. And again. Every 5
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to 12 seconds. Michael Kiefer of the Arizona Republic started
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making hash marks in his notebook. Troy Hayden of Fox
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10 said afterward, it was like watching a fish on
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the shore gulping air. On the other side of the glass,
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the prison's log shows a second dose at 2.08, a
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third at 2.13, and more on through the afternoon, with
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the director telephoning the governor's office and the attorney general's
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office between pushes and the team leader checking seven more
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times and recording, inmate remains sedated, no issues with IV. Meanwhile,
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Wood's lawyers filed an emergency motion and got Judge Neil
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Wake of the Federal District Court on the telephone. Robin
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Conrad told the judge her client had been gasping, snorting,
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and unable to breathe and not dying since 157. Jeff Zick,
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for the state, said the medical team considered Wood effectively
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brain-dead and that the director couldn't change course now. While
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they argued, Zick broke in. I just learned that the
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IV team leader has confirmed Mr. Wood's death. It was 3.49 p.m.,
228
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an hour and 57 minutes after the first drug, and
229
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Kiefer had counted about 640 gasps. Records released nine days
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later showed 15 doses, 750 milligrams of each drug, where
231
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the protocol called for one. Governor Jan Brewer said Wood
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died in a lawful manner and by eyewitnesses and medical accounts,
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he did not suffer, and ordered a review. Dale Bache,
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Wood's lawyer, said the experiment with the two drugs failed
235
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today in Arizona. Deborah Dietz's sister, Jean Brown, had watched
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from the same room, and when reporters asked whether Wood
237
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had suffered, she said, You don't know what excruciating is.
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Excruciating is seeing your dad lying there in a pool
239
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of blood, seeing your sister lying there in a pool
240
00:16:00.389 --> 00:16:05.379
of blood. That's excruciating. This man deserved it. Her husband,
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00:16:05.460 --> 00:16:09.200
Richard Brown, who said he had seen Debra shot in 1989, asked,
242
00:16:09.659 --> 00:16:12.360
Why didn't they give him a bullet? Why didn't we
243
00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:17.250
give him Drano? The review Arizona commissioned released that December
244
00:16:17.710 --> 00:16:20.789
said the team hadn't violated the protocol, even with the
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00:16:20.789 --> 00:16:24.629
15 doses, and called the gasps normal responses of a
246
00:16:24.690 --> 00:16:29.730
dying body. The state dropped the two-drug combination anyway. Its
247
00:16:29.769 --> 00:16:34.830
midazolam expired in 2016. In 2017, It settled the prisoner's
248
00:16:34.889 --> 00:16:37.789
lawsuit by agreeing to a single drug and giving up
249
00:16:37.809 --> 00:16:41.149
the director's power to improvise once an execution had begun.
250
00:16:41.889 --> 00:16:49.720
And it executed no one at all. Until 2022. On
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September 30th, 2026, at 7.26 p.m., the curtain opens in Tennessee,
252
00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:59.480
and Krista Pike says, I'm at peace, and I'm ready
253
00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:04.289
to go. At 7.46 p.m., The curtain closes, and a
254
00:17:04.329 --> 00:17:09.710
reporter writes that she is clearly still alive. At 8.53,
255
00:17:09.710 --> 00:17:13.380
after a second dose, the witnesses are sent out, and
256
00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:18.859
she's still breathing. For four centuries, each new method was
257
00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:22.180
sold as the fix for the last. The long drop,
258
00:17:22.769 --> 00:17:27.009
the electric chair, gas, and finally the needle, sold as
259
00:17:27.089 --> 00:17:33.980
a medical procedure. A scholar went through 8,776 American executions
260
00:17:34.259 --> 00:17:40.740
from 1890 to 2010. 276 went wrong, and the needle
261
00:17:41.079 --> 00:17:44.960
had the highest failure rate of them all. In our
262
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quest for humane ways to kill someone, we've sometimes created
263
00:17:49.740 --> 00:17:55.670
more gruesome and torturous ones. Botched Executions Four centuries of
264
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failed hangings, electrocutions, gassings, injections, and firing squads. On Amazon,
265
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in Kindle, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited. Weirddarkness.com slash botched executions. Interlude.
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The rest of the list. 1985 to 1998. 16 more
267
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lethal injections from these years are on the list. Most
268
00:18:22.430 --> 00:18:24.670
of them are the same story. A search for a
269
00:18:24.710 --> 00:18:27.910
vein that ran 20 minutes or an hour, and critics
270
00:18:27.970 --> 00:18:30.950
of the list, Michael Conklin among them, have argued that
271
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a long vein search isn't a botched execution at all.
272
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They're here because the list counts them, and because together
273
00:18:38.539 --> 00:18:43.539
they show how ordinary the trouble was. Stephen Peter Morin, Texas,
274
00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:48.180
March 13th, 1985 Morin was a drifter and cocaine addict
275
00:18:48.220 --> 00:18:51.619
who faced death sentences for three killings. The one carried
276
00:18:51.700 --> 00:18:54.680
out was for shooting Carrie Marie Scott outside a San
277
00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:58.880
Antonio restaurant in December 1981. He'd pleaded guilty to it
278
00:18:58.940 --> 00:19:02.809
at trial, before the jury and before God. He was
279
00:19:02.849 --> 00:19:06.289
strapped down at 12.03 a.m. and lay there for 41
280
00:19:06.289 --> 00:19:09.150
minutes while medics who said his veins were shot by
281
00:19:09.210 --> 00:19:13.250
drug use probed both arms and a leg. A saline
282
00:19:13.289 --> 00:19:16.349
line finally went in at 12.44 and he was pronounced
283
00:19:16.450 --> 00:19:20.710
dead at 12.55. His last words were a prayer that ended,
284
00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:24.630
Lord Jesus, I commit my soul to you. And he
285
00:19:24.650 --> 00:19:26.670
blew a kiss to a woman in the witness room.
286
00:19:27.670 --> 00:19:30.009
On the ride from death row, he'd asked the guards
287
00:19:30.109 --> 00:19:35.890
if they'd like to stop and go fishing. Randy Lynn Woolz, Texas,
288
00:19:36.109 --> 00:19:41.269
August 20th, 1986 Woolz beat, cut, and burned drive-in theater
289
00:19:41.289 --> 00:19:44.549
ticket seller Betty Stotts in her booth in Kerryville in
290
00:19:44.589 --> 00:19:47.690
June 1979, and he was found sitting in her car
291
00:19:47.829 --> 00:19:51.579
on the lot with the money. Six days before his execution,
292
00:19:51.859 --> 00:19:54.420
the Fifth Circuit threw out his claim that a conscious
293
00:19:54.460 --> 00:19:57.309
man under the paralytic drug would feel shortness of breath
294
00:19:57.410 --> 00:20:01.730
and suffocation over a two-to-three-minute period, calling the showing far
295
00:20:01.829 --> 00:20:05.509
short of what the law required. On the gurney, he
296
00:20:05.569 --> 00:20:08.670
helped the team. He was helpful in flexing his fist
297
00:20:08.730 --> 00:20:11.390
and attempting to make his veins come out, Attorney General
298
00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:13.980
Jim Maddox said. He said because he was a heavy
299
00:20:14.019 --> 00:20:17.039
drug user, people would have a difficult time finding his veins.
300
00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:23.160
He was pronounced dead at 12.23 a.m. Conklin singles out
301
00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:29.160
this entry as the list's thinnest. Elliot Rod Johnson, Texas,
302
00:20:29.380 --> 00:20:33.920
June 24, 1987. Johnson was one of four men who
303
00:20:33.980 --> 00:20:39.019
robbed Granado's jewelry store in Beaumont in April 1982. The owner,
304
00:20:39.079 --> 00:20:42.579
Gio Granato, and Arturo Melendez were shot dead, and by
305
00:20:42.619 --> 00:20:47.140
Johnson's own confession, it was his accomplice who fired. His veins,
306
00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:50.980
Maddox said afterward, were not suitable for injection after years
307
00:20:51.019 --> 00:20:54.200
of drug abuse, and the execution took nearly an hour.
308
00:20:55.019 --> 00:20:57.140
I'm very sorry for bringing all the hurt and pain
309
00:20:57.160 --> 00:21:00.880
to everyone who loved me so much, he said. That day,
310
00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:03.579
he'd spoken by phone with his mother, who was serving
311
00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:10.109
a theft sentence in another Texas prison. Stephen McCoy, Texas,
312
00:21:10.490 --> 00:21:16.059
May 24th, 1989. On New Year's Eve 1980, after a
313
00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:20.140
car accident on a Houston freeway, McCoy, James Pastor, and
314
00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:24.910
Gary LeBlanc picked up Cynthia Johnson, offering help, and raped
315
00:21:24.970 --> 00:21:28.230
and strangled her in a warehouse. Pastor drove a nail
316
00:21:28.269 --> 00:21:31.589
through her nose. When the drugs went into McCoy, his
317
00:21:31.690 --> 00:21:35.859
chest heaved, he gasped and choked, and his back arched
318
00:21:35.890 --> 00:21:39.650
off the gurney. a male witness fainted and fell into another.
319
00:21:40.420 --> 00:21:43.319
His lawyer, Karen Zellers, who was in the room, thought
320
00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:46.039
for a moment the whole row would go down. The
321
00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:49.420
Attorney General conceded he seemed to have had a somewhat
322
00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:52.700
stronger reaction and offered that the drugs might have been
323
00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:56.279
administered in a heavier dose or more rapidly. He made
324
00:21:56.380 --> 00:22:04.279
no statement. Charles Walker, Illinois, September 12, 1990 Illinois' first
325
00:22:04.420 --> 00:22:08.210
execution in 28 years was a volunteer who'd given up
326
00:22:08.250 --> 00:22:12.549
his appeals. In June 1983, he'd come upon Kevin Paul
327
00:22:12.750 --> 00:22:16.849
and Sharon Winker fishing on Silver Creek near Muscoota. He
328
00:22:16.930 --> 00:22:19.829
robbed Paul of $ 40 and tied them both to trees,
329
00:22:19.930 --> 00:22:22.710
and when Paul said he recognized him, Walker shot them.
330
00:22:23.609 --> 00:22:27.059
At Stateville, he looked at the 23 witnesses, told the warden,
331
00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:29.799
tell Jesse and tell Vi that I'll see them later.
332
00:22:30.200 --> 00:22:34.019
You're a good man. Took four heavy breaths, and died
333
00:22:34.119 --> 00:22:38.089
quietly in 11 minutes. Two years later, Gary Sutterfield, the
334
00:22:38.140 --> 00:22:41.210
engineer Illinois had borrowed from the Missouri prison system to
335
00:22:41.250 --> 00:22:43.950
help run it, said a kink in the tubing had
336
00:22:44.029 --> 00:22:46.369
stopped the drugs and the needle had been put in
337
00:22:46.470 --> 00:22:50.910
pointing toward Walker's fingers instead of his heart. Three physicians
338
00:22:50.950 --> 00:22:58.650
had taken part. Robin Leroy Parks, Oklahoma, March 10, 1992.
339
00:22:58.650 --> 00:23:02.519
Parks shot a gas station attendant, Abdullah Ibrahim, in Oklahoma
340
00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:06.390
City in August 1977 because he was afraid Ibrahim would
341
00:23:06.430 --> 00:23:10.289
report his stolen credit card. Two minutes after the drugs started,
342
00:23:10.730 --> 00:23:13.759
the muscles of his jaw, neck, and abdomen began to spasm,
343
00:23:14.059 --> 00:23:17.640
and he gasped and gagged for about 11 minutes before
344
00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:19.900
he died, by the account of Wayne Green of the
345
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.210
Tulsa World. It was overwhelming. Stunning, disturbing, he wrote, an
346
00:23:24.250 --> 00:23:27.490
intrusion into a moment so personal that reporters, taught for
347
00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:30.390
years that intrusion is their business, had trouble looking into
348
00:23:30.430 --> 00:23:35.799
each other's eyes after it was over. Billy Wayne White, Texas,
349
00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:40.700
April 23, 1992 White was two months short of 20
350
00:23:40.700 --> 00:23:43.579
when he shot Martha Spinks in the face during a
351
00:23:43.640 --> 00:23:47.240
robbery of her furniture store in Houston in August 1976,
352
00:23:47.240 --> 00:23:49.779
and her husband wrestled the gun away and shot White
353
00:23:49.819 --> 00:23:53.980
in the groin. Sixteen years later, it took 47 minutes
354
00:23:54.019 --> 00:23:56.140
to find a vein in his hand, and he was
355
00:23:56.200 --> 00:24:01.390
pronounced dead at 12.58 a.m. He was very compliant, very courteous,
356
00:24:01.509 --> 00:24:05.529
very cooperative, the prison director, Andy Collins, said. In fact,
357
00:24:05.809 --> 00:24:14.730
he attempted to assist us. Justin Lee May, Texas, May 7, 1992.
358
00:24:14.730 --> 00:24:17.619
May shot Frank and Jeanette Murdaugh in their Western Auto
359
00:24:17.630 --> 00:24:20.730
Store in Freeport in 1978 and and walked out with
360
00:24:20.769 --> 00:24:24.279
an armload of guns. UPI led its story on his
361
00:24:24.339 --> 00:24:27.619
execution with the news that he died coughing and gasping.
362
00:24:28.759 --> 00:24:31.900
Michael Grochik of the Associated Press wrote that, compared to
363
00:24:32.019 --> 00:24:35.609
other recent executions in Texas, May's reaction to the drugs
364
00:24:35.670 --> 00:24:39.190
was more violent. He went into a coughing spasm, groaned
365
00:24:39.250 --> 00:24:42.289
and gasped, lifted his head from the death chamber gurney,
366
00:24:42.569 --> 00:24:44.170
and would have arched his back if he had not
367
00:24:44.190 --> 00:24:47.230
been belted down. After he stopped breathing, his eyes and
368
00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:51.369
mouth remained open. He'd married his wife by proxy from
369
00:24:51.450 --> 00:24:57.900
death row, and she watched. Emmett Foster, Missouri, May 3rd,
370
00:24:57.900 --> 00:25:03.240
1995 Foster was convicted of shooting Travis Walker four times
371
00:25:03.299 --> 00:25:06.700
in the head in Walker's home in November 1983. A
372
00:25:06.769 --> 00:25:11.730
woman shot alongside Walker survived and identified him. At Potosi,
373
00:25:11.910 --> 00:25:15.329
seven minutes after the drugs began, he was conscious and gasping,
374
00:25:15.730 --> 00:25:18.539
and the blinds came down. They stayed down for close
375
00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:21.460
to half an hour, and when they went up at 12.36 a.m.,
376
00:25:21.799 --> 00:25:25.160
the prison announced he had died three minutes before. The
377
00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:27.799
coroner concluded that the straps holding him to the gurney
378
00:25:28.140 --> 00:25:30.990
had been pulled so tight they hampered the flow of
379
00:25:31.009 --> 00:25:34.990
the drugs. Two witnesses refused to sign the affidavit saying
380
00:25:35.009 --> 00:25:38.730
they had seen the execution because they hadn't. An autopsy
381
00:25:38.769 --> 00:25:41.859
his mother paid for found he died of pulmonary edema,
382
00:25:42.259 --> 00:25:45.140
not the heart attack the third drug is meant to cause.
383
00:25:47.490 --> 00:25:54.450
Richard Towns Jr., Virginia, January 23, 1996. Towns shot a
384
00:25:54.470 --> 00:25:58.279
Virginia Beach convenience store clerk, Virginia Goebel, during a robbery
385
00:25:58.299 --> 00:26:02.039
in April 1985, and two jurors later swore they'd have
386
00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:05.180
spared him had they known a life sentence meant life.
387
00:26:05.940 --> 00:26:08.480
His last words were, I'm innocent. That's all I have
388
00:26:08.509 --> 00:26:12.730
to say. I'm innocent. The Virginian pilot reported that he
389
00:26:12.769 --> 00:26:16.930
died with no complications, prison officials said. The New York
390
00:26:16.990 --> 00:26:20.349
Times reported that the team spent 22 minutes trying his
391
00:26:20.490 --> 00:26:22.420
arms and put the needle through the top of his
392
00:26:22.460 --> 00:26:31.279
right foot. Tommy J. Smith, Indiana, July 18, 1996. Indiana's
393
00:26:31.339 --> 00:26:33.799
first lethal injection was of a man who had shot
394
00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:37.589
a homicide detective, Sergeant Jack Orberg, three times through a
395
00:26:37.589 --> 00:26:41.750
barricaded door in Indianapolis in December 1980. The prison said
396
00:26:41.789 --> 00:26:44.750
the primary procedure was could not be completed and a
397
00:26:44.809 --> 00:26:48.130
catheter had to be put in Smith's foot. The fuller
398
00:26:48.250 --> 00:26:50.849
account came out later. The team worked on him for
399
00:26:50.849 --> 00:26:54.069
16 minutes, then called in a physician who gave him
400
00:26:54.130 --> 00:26:57.269
a local anesthetic, tried twice to put the line into
401
00:26:57.309 --> 00:27:00.529
his neck, and finally got it into his foot 49
402
00:27:00.529 --> 00:27:04.440
minutes in. He was pronounced dead 20 minutes after that,
403
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.170
an hour and nine minutes from the start. The Indianapolis
404
00:27:09.230 --> 00:27:11.789
Star found that the doctor's part in it violated the
405
00:27:11.869 --> 00:27:15.609
ethics rule of both the American and Indiana medical associations.
406
00:27:18.329 --> 00:27:25.759
Scott Don Carpenter, Oklahoma, May 8, 1997 Carpenter was 22,
407
00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:28.259
a volunteer who had given up his appeals and had
408
00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:31.180
stabbed a bait shop owner, A.J. Kelly, in the neck
409
00:27:31.400 --> 00:27:33.539
at Lake Eufaula in February 1994 for about $ 80 in
410
00:27:33.559 --> 00:27:39.490
gas and merchandise. As the drugs took effect, he began
411
00:27:39.529 --> 00:27:43.990
to gasp and shake, followed by a guttural sound, multiple spasms,
412
00:27:44.349 --> 00:27:47.630
and gasping for air, the Tulsa World reported, until he
413
00:27:47.670 --> 00:27:51.630
stopped moving three minutes later. He was pronounced dead 11
414
00:27:51.630 --> 00:27:57.859
minutes after the drugs began. Michael Eugene Elkins, South Carolina,
415
00:27:58.259 --> 00:28:03.960
June 13, 1997 In July 1990, Elkins stopped to help
416
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:06.880
a stranded motorist, Patricia Witt, on the shoulder of I-95
417
00:28:08.059 --> 00:28:11.220
and stabbed her eight times. She died on the road,
418
00:28:11.420 --> 00:28:14.619
asphyxiated by her own blood, in the court's words. He
419
00:28:14.660 --> 00:28:17.460
was the first man executed in South Carolina's new death
420
00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:21.000
chamber in Columbia. His body was swollen from liver and
421
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:23.880
spleen disease, and it took the team nearly an hour
422
00:28:23.940 --> 00:28:26.720
to find a vein. The one that finally held was
423
00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:29.839
in his neck. He tried to help.' Should I lean
424
00:28:29.859 --> 00:28:35.299
my head down a little bit?' he asked. Joseph Cannon, Texas,
425
00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:42.390
April 22, 1998 Kinnan was 17 in 1977 when he
426
00:28:42.410 --> 00:28:45.259
shot Ann Walsh seven times in her San Antonio home.
427
00:28:46.019 --> 00:28:47.880
She was a lawyer who had taken him in because
428
00:28:47.900 --> 00:28:52.059
her brother, his court-appointed attorney, had asked her to. After
429
00:28:52.099 --> 00:28:54.960
his final statement, the drugs began and the needle came
430
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:57.759
out of his arm. The prison said it blew out.
431
00:28:58.539 --> 00:29:01.599
By the Death Penalty Information Center's account, he lay back,
432
00:29:01.900 --> 00:29:05.079
closed his eyes, and said to the witnesses, It's come undone.
433
00:29:06.180 --> 00:29:08.750
The curtain closed for 15 minutes while the line was
434
00:29:08.829 --> 00:29:11.279
put back and when it opened, he was crying and
435
00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:13.619
made a second statement. I kind of lost my cool
436
00:29:13.640 --> 00:29:16.049
a while ago, he said. I'm sorry for what I
437
00:29:16.089 --> 00:29:19.910
did to your mom. Walsh's five sons were among the witnesses.
438
00:29:21.890 --> 00:29:28.390
Gennaro Ruiz Camacho, Texas, August 26, 1998. Camacho, a Dallas
439
00:29:28.430 --> 00:29:32.829
drug trafficker, invaded Sam Wright's house in May 1988 over
440
00:29:33.430 --> 00:29:36.809
a $ 20, 000 debt, shot an employee who walked in, and
441
00:29:36.849 --> 00:29:39.940
took Wright's girlfriend and three-year-old son, who were killed in
442
00:29:39.980 --> 00:29:43.799
Oklahoma days later. The execution was delayed about two hours,
443
00:29:43.859 --> 00:29:46.940
the AP reported, in part because the team couldn't find
444
00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:50.029
veins in his arms.' I' ll be waiting for you in heaven,'
445
00:29:50.180 --> 00:30:00.400
he said.' Okay. Adios.' Roderick Aveda, Nevada, October 5, 1998
446
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:03.680
Aveda shot a former girlfriend, Donna Martin, twice in the
447
00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:06.880
head in Las Vegas in 1989, sitting on her back
448
00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:10.079
and holding her by the hair. He refused the sedative
449
00:30:10.140 --> 00:30:13.500
Nevada usually gave an hour before, wanting a clear head,
450
00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:16.259
and when the team had trouble with his collapsed veins,
451
00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:19.700
he suggested where to put the second needle. It took
452
00:30:19.700 --> 00:30:21.920
25 minutes to find a vein by the Las Vegas
453
00:30:21.980 --> 00:30:27.480
Review-Journal's count. The prison director's version was, everything went smoothly.
454
00:30:30.619 --> 00:30:33.460
Thanks for listening. I've been reading from my new book,
455
00:30:33.619 --> 00:30:39.279
Botched Executions, Four Centuries of Failed Hangings, Electrocutions, Gassings, Injections,
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00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:42.680
and Firing Squads. If you'd like a list of sources
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00:30:42.779 --> 00:30:44.980
I used for this episode, and for the book it's
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00:30:45.039 --> 00:30:48.980
narrated from, you can find the full list at WeirdDarkness.com
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slash Botched Executions. Scroll to the bottom of the page
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for the sources used. If you'd rather not wait for
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00:30:55.940 --> 00:30:58.440
the next section to be shared in the podcast, the
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whole book is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback,
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as well as Kindle Unlimited.
