Botched Oklahoma Execution Reignites Death Penalty Debate
At The Washington Post, Lindsey Bever reports that a botched Oklahoma execution has prompted calls for a reconsideration of the death penalty in the United States. After inmate Clayton Lockett’s writhing 43-minute death, Governor Mary Fallin issued a stay for 14 days of the next execution scheduled in order to conduct a review into the state’s capital punishment procedure. Ryan Kiesel, executive director of the ACLU of Oklahoma, said, “In Oklahoma’s haste to conduct a science experiment on two men behind a veil of secrecy, our state has disgraced itself before the nation and world.”