USA - Oklahoma. Secrets still shroud Clayton Lockett's execution.

Secrets still shroud Clayton Lockett's execution. Failed IV line was started by a medical professional whose credentials are a secret under state law. Clayton Lockett's death took nearly 4 times as long as most Oklahoma executions because a failed IV line started by a medical professional whose credentials remain secret under state law slowly leaked a drug combination that experts had warned could potentially be inhumane, a Tulsa World investigation has found. When state officials realized what was happening, they technically halted Lockett's execution, but they had no backup drugs to restart the process. Unlike protocols in other death-penalty states, Oklahoma's policy contains few - if any - fail-safes or backup plans in case something goes wrong during an execution. Gov. Mary Fallin's office knew an hour before Lockett's execution began about complications finding a suitable vein for the injection but left the decision of whether to continue up to prison officials, a spokesman said. The state of Oklahoma is now investigating his death and reviewing its execution protocol. The official timeline of Lockett's execution reported to the governor's office by Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton states a "phlebotomist" searched for arm, leg and foot veins to place the IVs and couldn't find "a viable point" to insert one. The timeline states the doctor then "went to the groin area," but doesn't say who inserted the IV. If the state allowed a phlebotomist to either insert or help insert an IV into Clayton Lockett's body to deliver the lethal drugs, it violated its own protocol. The protocol, updated April 14, states the warden of OSP will recruit a "licensed/certified health care specialist in IV insertion" before the execution. The protocol states the specialist must be an Emergency medical technician-paramedic "or person with similar qualifications and experience in IV insertion." In Oklahoma, phlebotomists are unlicensed, unregulated and not trained to insert IVs, according to Karen Holmes, the director of Tulsa Community College's medical lab technology and phlebotomy program. Alex Weintz, a spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin, said: "We were told it was a phlebotomist administering the IV." When the Tulsa World asked DOC officials to verify whether a phlebotomist was present at the execution as Patton's report states, spokesman Jerry Massie said the person was actually an EMT, as required by the protocol. An Oklahoma law passed in 2011 designed to conceal key facts of its execution procedures prevents anyone from finding out who the medical participants were and what qualifications they may or may not have. The April 29 botched execution is not the 1st time Patton has been questioned about such problems. As part of a lawsuit brought by death-row inmates in Arizona's prison system, where Patton worked before he came to Oklahoma, Patton acknowledged that a member of the prison's execution team lacked qualifications related to IV placement. He said in a 2011 deposition that he never checked to determine whether any execution team members had experience placing femoral IVs, a requirement of the Arizona prison system's protocol. Patton was division director of operations at the time and responsible for planning and directing all execution-related activities. An expert who reviewed medical records of five executed inmates testified that four of the IVs were improperly placed in the femoral vein. The Arizona prison's medical team leader explained in his deposition that "with each execution we were learning probably a little bit more about the natural course of performing the execution." A private autopsy released today shows more evidence that the execution of Lockett wasn't conducted properly, and the team carrying out the procedure didn't properly place an IV into Lockett's vein. Forensic pathologist Joseph Cohen conducted the May 14 autopsy at the request of attorneys for several Oklahoma death row prisoners. The state initially said Lockett's vein collapsed, which led to the drugs not being administered properly. But Cohen said Lockett's veins were in excellent shape for the procedure. The autopsy found that the execution team tried to set an IV in both arms and both sides of Lockett's groin, eventually settling on the femoral vein. Cohen described that procedure as more risky, difficult, and painful for the prisoner. Megan McCracken, an attorney with the Death Penalty Clinic at U.C. Berkeley School of Law, said in a statement Oklahoma had no contingency plan if the execution wasn't carried out properly. "Lack of transparency is a pervasive problem with execution procedures," McCracken said. "During Mr. Lockett's execution, the Department of Corrections closed the blinds to the execution chamber so that the witnesses and press could not see what was happening for the 24 minutes leading up to the announcement that Mr. Lockett had died. Nothing is known about what happened during this timeframe, and it is one of many questions Dr. Cohen seeks answers to in order to complete his independent autopsy." Cohen said he still wants to see the documentation of tests and procedures performed during the State Medical Examiner's Office's autopsy, as well as information from the Dallas County ME's separate autopsy. He's also interested in the state Department of Corrections' policies and procedures pertaining to lethal injections, and complete records of how Lockett was treated prior to his execution.