Eric Allen Patton, 49, was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Eric Allen Patton, 49, was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Patton was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m..
Patton was convicted of the Dec. 16, 1994, murder of Charlene Kauer, 56, during a robbery. Patton confessed to the killing, but later appealed his conviction on the grounds he was under the influence of cocaine and could not form the intent to kill.
During Patton's execution, state corrections officials planned to use a slightly different lethal drug recipe for the 1st time.
Patton had challenged the state's execution procedure, arguing that inmates may be subjected to pain during lethal injection. Although a federal judge rejected that argument earlier this month, the state Department of Corrections revised its execution procedure.
Under the new system, inmates will receive a larger dose of the sedative sodium thiopental, which causes unconsciousness, before getting injected with vecuronium bromide, which stops breathing, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
Patton becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma, the 39th in the USA, and the 1043rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.