First execution scheduled since botched Oklahoma procedure

The state of Georgia is scheduled to put to death a convicted killer, in what would be the first lethal injection in the United States since a botched execution seven weeks ago.

File image: EPA

(File: EPA)

Barring a last minute court decision, Marcus Wellons is set to be executed at 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) at a prison in Jackson, Georgia.

Another two other executions are scheduled in the 24 hours following Wellons's: one on Wednesday at 12:00 am in the central state of Missouri and a third at 6:00 pm in the southern state of Florida.

The marred procedure in Oklahoma on April 29 left a death-row inmate writhing in pain, stirring fresh US debate about capital punishment.

So far each execution slated to take place since has been delayed.

Wellons was convicted of the 1989 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl he kidnapped on her way to school and strangled with a telephone cord, and whose naked and scarred body he then hid in a nearby wood.

A federal judge Monday refused to delay the execution, but Wellons's lawyers planned to appeal, arguing against a Georgia law that protects the identity of the drug manufacturers and suppliers.

Under Georgia law, as in Oklahoma, authorities are not required to disclose certain details surrounding lethal injections.

Although the state uses the anesthetic pentobarbital in its injection cocktail, the drug is apparently made by a compounding pharmacy unaccredited at the federal level.

"There's not sufficient information provided on where they're getting the pentobarbital," said Deborah Denno, a lethal injection expert and Fordham University law professor.

"The secrecy laws prevent the kind of information that we need to even discuss the issue," she added.

US states using the death penalty have faced crisis over shortages of lethal injection drugs after European suppliers stopped supplying pentobarbital for use in human executions.

The shortages have prompted prison departments in the 32 states that still allow the death penalty to seek new supply sources or new drug protocols.

In Oklahoma, Clayton Lockett, a convicted killer and rapist, was put to death by lethal injection in a process that took 43 minutes, well over the expected time of a little over 10 minutes.

An independent autopsy found that the medical team failed to set an IV multiple times and ultimately perforated a vein.

This, says Denno "definitely shows that there's problems with the execution team, with people who simply don't know what they're doing."

Under secrecy laws, the individuals on Wellons's execution team are also unknown.

"It seems precipitous to carry out executions until more is known about what went wrong in Oklahoma and how to fix it," said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center.

"The problems in Oklahoma are also potentially present in Georgia, Missouri and Florida, even though they may use slightly different protocols," he said.


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Source: AFP


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