After the botched execution of Clayton Lockett, Oklahoma spent months fixing their execution policy.
Now though, there are concerns that Department of Corrections staff may not know the policy well enough.
“I think given what happened in the Lockett execution and all of that, it makes you really question whether or not the DOC in Oklahoma have fixed it's problems and be able to do this in a way that's competent,” Jan Moreno, Attorney with UC Berkeley’s Death Penalty Clinic said.
Richard Glossip's execution was halted Wednesday because the DOC in McAlester had the wrong drugs.
They had potassium acetate on hand, but they needed potassium chloride to induce cardiac arrest.
Jan Moreno who specializes in lethal injection drugs at UC Berkeley’s Death Penalty Clinic says this was a major oversight.
“Certainly I can imagine they will go back and purchase the right drug, but it certainly calls into question how careful they are in this whole process.”
According to Oklahoma's own execution policy, the prison’s warden is responsible for checking the equipment and chemicals ahead of the execution date.
It states, two days prior to the execution the warden,“Verifies execution inventory and equipment checks are completed and open issues resolved in accordance with established protocols.”
Also, before anything enters the chamber, the policy states they must go through the hands of multiple staff members to make sure they have the right drugs and everything is labeled correctly.
Moreno says she has never heard of a department buying the wrong drug, let alone getting as far as they did before realizing it.
The DOC gave few answers to why this happened and it’s not clear if this mix-up will effect the execution of Benjamin Cole next week.
Richard Glossip's execution is rescheduled for Nov. 6.
