Horror details of botched death row killings show inmates suffered ‘drowning’ and ‘died in agony’ as prisoners push back

HORROR details from autopsies and eyewitnesses of botched death row killings reveal the agony reportedly endured by inmates.

The revelations come as inmates on death row in Oklahoma are challenging the state’s lethal injection process.

Attorneys for the inmates argue that previous executions were botched and caused extensive pain and drowning-like sensations.

The inmates claim the injection protocol violates the United States constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The federal case, being heard by Judge Stephen P Friot of the US District Court of Oklahoma City, will decide whether the use of the sedative midazolam in the three-drug lethal-injection process used by Oklahoma causes a tortuous feeling of suffocation and being burned alive.  

that the controversial sedative creates an agonizing feeling of suffocation brought on by an almost instant build-up of fluid in lungs, known as flash pulmonary edema, which can cause the sensation of drowning.

that the paralytic drug vecuronium bromide creates so-called chemical suffocation as it shuts down the lungs, and the heart-stopping potassium chloride creates the feeling of being chemically burned alive.

CONTROVERSIAL SEDATIVE

The suit claims that John Marion Grant, 60, whose death sentence was carried out in October 2021, suffered a botched execution.

Grant vomited and regurgitated after being administered a cocktail of drugs including midazolam.

Reporters who were inside the chamber said he convulsed dozens of times, while the state prison chief said it was an execution that was "not pleasant to watch."

“He began convulsing about two-dozen times, full-body convulsions, and began to vomit, which covered his face and began to run down his neck and to the side of his face,” Associated Press reporter Sean Murphy .

After the execution, Department of Corrections Spokesman Justin Wolf said the capital punishment “was carried out in accordance with Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ protocols and without complication.”

In the current case, Dr Ervin Yen, an anesthesiologist, testified that Oklahoma's injections procedure is "adequate to carry out an execution in as humane a way as possible," .

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT

Yen, who witnessed Grant's death, also claimed the execution was not botched, saying that he appeared to become unconscious 30 to 45 seconds after the sedative was administered.

He added that Grant did not vomit but instead regurgitated food, and further claimed that the movements were not convulsions.

Grant's death came , in a 5-3 decision, a lower court ruling that initially granted stays of execution for Grant and fellow Oklahoma death row inmate Julius Jones while they challenged the use of midazolam.

Jones received a commuted sentence from Governor Kevin Sitt just hours before he was scheduled to die.

His case received national calls for clemency as people questioned his guilt, including celebrities like Kim Kardashian.