Obama to seek review of execution

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Friday that the botched execution of an Oklahoma convict this week that left the man gasping and moaning before he died of a heart attack was “deeply troubling” and that he would ask the Justice Department to review the episode.

In his first public comments about the execution of Clayton Lockett, Obama said the lethal injection procedure that failed to properly sedate Lockett added to other concerns the president had about the way capital punishment is meted out.

“The individual who was subject to the death penalty had committed heinous crimes, terrible crimes,” Obama said during a White House news conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. “I’ve said in the past that there are certain circumstances in which a crime is so terrible that the application of the death penalty may be appropriate -mass killings, the killings of children.”

But beyond the question of whether faulty lethal injections amount to cruel and unusual punishment, Obama said other problems cited by human-rights groups in the application of the death penalty also troubled him, including racial bias and prosecutorial errors that lead to the execution of innocent people.

“All of these, I think, do raise significant questions about how the death penalty is being applied,” Obama said. “And this situation in Oklahoma I think just highlights some of the significant problems there.”

Lockett was convicted of shooting a 19-year-old woman in 1999 and burying her alive.

Obama said he would discuss death-penalty concerns with Attorney General Eric Holder to determine steps the federal government might need to take to prevent errors in capital cases.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations human-rights office in Geneva, said Lockett’s prolonged execution could amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international human-rights law. Colville said Lockett’s was the second troubling execution in the U.S. this year after Dennis McGuire’s death in Ohio on Jan. 16 with an allegedly untested combination of drugs.

“The apparent cruelty involved in these recent executions simply reinforces the argument that authorities across the United States should impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty and work for abolition of this cruel and inhuman practice,”Colville said.

Samples of the same drugs used in Lockett’s execution will be tested as part of an investigation into his death, a probe that could result in Oklahoma executions being halted for months, officials said Friday.

Oklahoma’s attorney general’s office said the Department of Corrections saved syringes of the lethal drugs set aside for a second execution that had been set to follow Clayton Lockett’s. The second execution was put on hold for at least two weeks after Lockett’s went awry Tuesday night.

Lockett died 43 minutes after his execution began of an apparent heart attack as Oklahoma used a new drug combination for the first time in the state.

Officials said Friday the autopsy report on Lockett will take two to three months to complete. Oklahoma Department of Public Safety spokesman Capt. George Brown said the autopsy, being performed in Dallas, is expected to be finished in eight to 12 weeks. Lockett’s body arrived in Dallas about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

Gov. Mary Fallin called on Wednesday for an investigation of Lockett’s execution to be conducted by the Department of Public Safety. She issued a stay until May 13 for Warner’s execution, but said Thursday that she was willing to issue a 60-day stay for Warner, the longest allowed under state law, if needed to complete the inquiry.

If 60 days is not adequate,Oklahoma’s attorney general has said he would request an additional stay from the courts to ensure no executions are carried out until the review is complete.

The drugs intended for Warner were never used. Assistant Attorney General Kindanne Jones said in a letter Friday that attorneys for Lockett and Warner may have access to the drugs if any are left over after the state’s analysis is complete.

Before Lockett’s execution, the state had refused to provide the source of the execution drugs, citing state law that allows such details to remain confidential.

“The Attorney General will take this step to assure that the state continues its efforts to remain as transparent as legally and practically possible, in light of the law and very real challenges Oklahoma faces in assuring that all lawful sentences, including the death penalty, are carried out,” Jones wrote.

Information for this article was contributed by David S. Joachim of The New York Times News Service and by Sean Murphy and Kristi Eaton of The Associated Press.