A 60-year-old African-American convicted of murdering a prison worker is to be injected with a combination of three substances suspected of causing excruciating pain.
An execution with a lethal cocktail of substances, suspected of causing excruciating suffering to convicts, was suspended Thursday, October 28 by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, which Oklahoma asks for a green light after six years of hiatus .
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This rural and conservative southern state has scheduled to execute at 4:00 p.m. (11:00 p.m. in France) John Grant, a 60-year-old African-American sentenced to death for the murder of a prison employee. He is to be injected with a combination of three substances which, after several failed executions in 2014 and 2015, led the state to declare a moratorium on executions.
«This protocol has been shown to be humane and efficient”, Assured in a statement the prison services of Oklahoma. For his lawyer, Dale Baich, however, “serious questions“On the pain caused by this lethal cocktail and on its conformity with the Constitution which prohibits”cruel and unusual punishments». «A trial on this precise point is due to start in February and executions are not expected to resume until“, He said in a statement.
Read alsoDeath penalty: executioner in France, history of a taboo profession
An appeals court ruled in his favor and suspended the execution on Wednesday, but authorities in Oklahoma immediately seized the United States Supreme Court to ask it to overturn the decision. The high court must render its decision during the day.
«My body is burning»
The contested protocol combines a sedative and an anesthetic, believed to prevent pain before the lethal dose of potassium chloride is injected. It had been used in 2014 to execute Clayton Lockett, but the convict had agonized for 43 minutes in apparent pain. In 2015, another convict, Charles Warner complained that his “body burns»Before being extinguished, the executioners having used a non-conforming product.
Read alsoDeath penalty: executioner in France, history of a taboo profession
The same error was almost reproduced in September 2015 and an execution was postponed at the last minute. Following these failures, a grand jury opened an investigation and the authorities agreed to suspend the application of the death penalty. In 2020, they finalized a new protocol and set several execution dates in 2021, starting with that of John Grant. In 1998, he killed with a screwdriver a woman who worked in the prison cafeteria where he was serving a sentence for an armed robbery.
Oklahoma also plans to execute on November 18 Julius Jones, a 41-year-old African-American, sentenced in 2002 to death for the murder of a white businessman whom he has always denied. His case was the subject of a documentary series, a podcast and he is supported by many associations and personalities like Kim Kardashian, convinced of his innocence. He lost all legal remedies, but the Oklahoma Pardons Office recommended that his sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.
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