tv Death Row Stories CNN September 4, 2015 8:00pm-9:01pm PDT
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he may be acquitted. he may be fwree. but he is guilty. on this episode of death row stories, executions around the country go horrible by wrong. >> it was clear, something was not right. you koumd see could see a spasm across state lines. the question is asked how we put people to death? >> these are evil doers.
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as society has evolved, so, foo, have the ways. >> prisoners were drawn and quartered with horses pulling people apart limb by limb. frans, famously, used the guillotine, responding to the chant off with their heads. fr for a long time, the med in the united states was hacking. >> it's become a great social e vernt. a great source of entertainment.
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>> the goal was to deter the dark side. >> it turns out it's very difficult to properly hang splb. if the drop was too long, the person's head would fall off. so somebody invented a machine where the rope would go up to a pull pulley, the boilder was troped. they had to hang him twice. that's why the electric chair was brought in. >> thomas edison filmed the
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in 1997, lethal injections were initialled. >> it looks calm and peaceful. to a graet degree, if ma mean has much more to do with t witnesses than it does with con sdem. >> the challenge was finding executioners with the medical skills to do the job. >> today there the united states, it's illegal. they're not properly trained to do an i virks sur zur john.
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>> just 17 steps from a room, he was helping his executioners. he laid on his side. >> after two hours, an unprecedented request. he asked the gov northerly to grant a temporary reprieve. >> romel bruman is still on death row. but he does not have an execution date and attorneys are arguing that you can't try to
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>> when we went to court, we argued that it was likely to leave him in severe pain. almost torture as if he was drowning or unable to breathe and choking and gasping for air. >> but arguing the dangers presented an unnerving catch 22. >> the burden of proof is going to show that it's so bad. it actually has to go bad. >> the judge argued that this is clearly an experiment.
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>> after watching my dad's execution, i know what cruel and unusual punishment is. 2 agony and terror lasted more than 19 minutes. >> i saw him gasping for air. his head kept coming up. his mouth was wide open and he's making all kinds of noises. we just don't need to do this. >> soon left other states.
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disabused of that notion. >> mcguire was predictable and foreseeable. how do you ever go forward after this moment? that's just beyond horrifying to me. after the botched execution of dennis mcguire, many thought that the controversial drug midazolam would no longer be used in executions. but less than six months later, arizona announced they would use midazolam on inmate joseph wood. wood was found guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her father in 1989. >> we were very aware about what
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happened with the execution of dennis mcguire, so we asked the department of correction for information about the source of the drugs and the qualifications of the executioners and wardens, and the state of arizona told us to go pound sand. it would not disclose the source of the drugs, and it said trust us, the people that are going to be doing this are qualified. >> why all the secrecy? because i think the departments of corrections would like to take care of this ugly little business in as efficient a way as possible. they had a job to do, executions to carry out. if people start raising questions about where the drugs come from, who the doctor is, then it slows down the process. >> joseph wood was taken to the execution chamber on july 23rd, 2014. at 1:52 p.m., the state of arizona injected wood with 50 milligrams of midazolam. five times the amount used in ohio. >> mr. wood opened his mouth wide and took a very deep breath. suddenly, his mouth popped open, like that. and everybody sort of jumped a little bit. hadn't seen that before.
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you could see a spasm go through his body. you could see it went all the way down to his stomach. gasping like a fish. it was extraordinarily loud. i started doing, you know, hash marks in my notebook. each time that he would make that sucking sound, he was gulping, he was gasping, he was struggling to breathe. i eventually counted 240 hash marks. went on and on. and i wondered is someone going to stop this execution. there were two lawyers sitting next to me, and i saw them get up and go out. he. >> one full hour into the execution, joseph wood was still alive. baish called for the execution to be halted. >> we immediately filed a motion with the federal district court, asking the federal judge to stop the execution. >> they got an assistant attorney general on the phone. and he said, he's unconscious. he's not feeling any pain.
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the judge said, well, do you have an eeg set up to him? well, no, we don't. so, you don't know. >> on the call, the assistant attorney general admitted that a second dose of midazolam had now been given to wood. >> what was not reported was that 14 additional doses of the drug were administered while all this was going on. >> nearly all drugs have what we call a ceiling effect. joseph wood received a total of 750 milligrams of midazolam, he was breathing, and his heart was working for nearly two hours. >> eventually, joseph wood's gasping slowed and it slowed, and eventually it petered out, and it was done, and then finally, it was over. >> after an hour and 57 minutes, joseph wood was finally declared dead, becoming one of the longest executions in u.s. history. to many, this was a clear case of cruel and unusual punishment. >> joe wood is dead, but it took him two hours to die.
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i can't imagine this is what the criminal justice system had hoped for. >> there was someone from the attorney general's office, it was very peaceful, he was sleeping and snoring, it was, like, no. this is not what it looks like. >> the victim's family had little sympathy for joseph wood. >> everybody said it was excruciating, you don't know what excruciating is, what's excruciating is seeing your father lying there in a pool of blood, your sister lying in a pool of blood. >> this man conducted a horrifying murder, and you guys are going, oh, let's worry about the drug. why didn't we give him a bullet, some drano. the hell with you guys. >> one of the family members said what does it matter if it's done with drano? the answer is we don't do that. this is the united states. we have a constitutional amendment that forbids cruel and
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unusual punishment. we're supposed to be above that. ♪ >> with botched executions now spreading, questions mounted about the fate of the 3,000 people remaining on death row. and with the moral implications falling on those normally hidden behind the curtain, the executioners themselves began to speak out. >> i just felt like the people had the right to know that something has been cloaked in secrecy for years and years and years. i just wanted people to understand. it's not that i couldn't handle it. it's that i couldn't handle what it turned me into. ♪ when lethal injection became 6
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reverend carroll picket witnessed 95 executions at the death house in huntsville, texas. >> we've had guards who would strap people down and faint in the death house. we've had guards come back in to undo the straps and they'd freeze, because they can't touch death. they come and go quite rapidly. every couple weeks another one changes. and they just couldn't do it. >> the life of an executioner is very much a hidden world. literally shrouded in secrecy. >> film maker patty dillon had a fill called "there will be no stay". the executioners i stayed with worked their way up from a correction officer to a major, which is when they became executioners. it was the highest promotion. it just happened to include execution. >> among the executioners patty found were craig baxley and terry bracely who carried out
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executions at the broad river prison in south carolina. >> they made us less than just a few feet away. the duty that i had was to take the syringe, screw it in and then do the plunging. >> if the inmate does not die within a certain few minutes, then you have to actually do another set. it's not the fact that i couldn't do it. i did it. it's the fact that it changes you psychologically. it changes you into a different person, you know. i was not trained to do it, and it messed me up. >> taking that plunger and pushing it in sort of set me on a particular course that i wasn't really prepared for. i expected to be trained. i expected to be counseled. none of that took place. >> there's still those fundamental christian rules of thou shalt not kill. and they're trapped in their head with this deep, dark secret of, i'm not supposed to be
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killing people. >> i do believe that if you are taking lives you are a serial killer, but i see a serial killer when i look in the mirror, and there are times when it becomes unbearable. >> i have not med anybody on an execution team that was not experiencing some post-traumatic damage. some of them survive, and many didn't. many committed suicide. >> the only thing that has kept me from turning into one of these people you sigh on the news is i have good professional help and medication and my wife and my children. >> these men that we've appointed to keep us safe say i'm the garbage man taking out your trash or what are' considering to be trash. and it's ruining my life. >> the executioners who were in charge of the botched executions in ohio and arizona had largely avoided public scrutiny, but in oklahoma that would change with
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the case of clayton lockett. >> clayton lockett was convicted of the murder of 18 year old stephanie kneeman. he shot her with a shotgun, dug a grave and buried her alive. mr. lockett confessed to the police. he was convicted on 19 counts. he received about 2500 years, plus the death penalty. >> facing their own shortage from the european draw ban, oklahoma announced they would use midazolam on lockett. and in a rare doubleheader, inmate charles warner to be executed the same night. >> both of these crimes, charles warners as well as lockett's were horrific. warner raped and murdered a baby. the question is whether the process was handled constitutionally and properly. >> susanna represented lockett and warner. >> a law had been passed in oklahoma in 2011 which made the source of drugs completely secret.
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but if my clients are not being rendered unconscious, that's cruel and unusual punishment. so i tried to show that this statute is unconstitutional, because it prohibits mr. lockett, mr. warner, anyone from finding out where those drugs came from. >> in fact, she discovered oklahoma had planned to execute lockett and warner with drugs purchased in a potentially illegal manner. >> correspondence admitted that the drugs were coming from a compounding pharmacy, which is not regulated by the fda. >> compounding pharmacies are neighborhood pharmacies in some cases that typically don't do this kind of thing at all. they do small drugs, lotions and creams and other simple things. >> compounding pharmacies don't traditionally make intervenous compounds. >> nobody oversees to see if the drug will do what it's supposed to do.
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>> if the state of oklahoma is buying drugs from a compounding pharmacy without a doctor/patient relationship, then that would mean that they're violating federal law. criminal law. >> in december of 2013, a court in missouri ordered the release of records detailing transaction with a compounding pharmacy in oklahoma. >> officials from the state of missouri department of corrections went to oklahoma to obtain drugs from a compounding pharmacy, apparently taking $11,000 in cash and buying it from a company in oklahoma that wasn't licensed to do business in missouri. >> it's like a shady drug deal. suddenly, you've got people carrying cash in the night
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across state lines, so that the public doesn't know how or where $11,000 in taxpayer money was spent? abide by the constitution, in the full light of day, in front of everybody, like our justice system's supposed to. >> missouri officials were accused of buying drugs from a compounding pharmacy named the apothecary shop in tulsa, oklahoma. e-mail chains also revealed secret agreements between the apothecary shop and prison officials in georgia. >> the states are at the end of their rope so to speak. they've tried everything. this is like their last-ditch effort to proceed with executions. >> with less than 24 hours to go, the oklahoma supreme court agreed to hear susanna's argument and granted clayton lockett and charles warner a rare stay of execution. that decision would set off one of the biggest police cal
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firestorms in state history. >> these are evildoers. these are animals. you can call them demons, if you may, we want justice. oklahoma supreme court had granted clayton lockett and charles warner a rare stay of execution in order to hear susanna gatony's argument. political reaction was swift and forceful. >> i believe the death penalty is an appropriate response and punishment to those who commit heinous crimes against their fellow men and women. >> the very next day, governor fallon issued an executive order which essentially said she didn't believe that the oklahoma supreme court had jurisdiction ♪ while you're watching this, i'm hacking your company. grabbing your data. stealing your customers' secrets.
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granted clayton lockett and charles warner a rare stay of execution in order to hear susanna gatony's argument. political reaction was swift and forceful. >> i believe the death penalty is an appropriate response and punishment to those who commit heinous crimes against their fellow men and women. >> the very next day, governor fallon issued an executive order which essentially said she didn't believe that the oklahoma supreme court had jurisdiction to do what they did. she was trying to override, usurp what the court had done. >> i don't know that it's ever happened in oklahoma. and no one really questioned whether she had the authority to do that or not. all the supreme court was really
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asking for was more time for the attorneys in the case to brief these issues. >> reaction also came from state representative and former police officer mike christian who immediately introduced legislation to impeach the judges who voted in favor of lockett and warner. >> these are evildoer, animals. you can call them demons if you may, and the people across this country, in particular oklahoma, we want justice. people in oklahoma strongly support the death penalty. they feel we don't spend enough time talking about the victims of these crimes. of a 18 year old girl ends up being savagely duct taped. shot and buried alive. and we're talking about mr. lockett and his rights. >> mike christian is a very pro-death lawyer. christian and several others proposed articles of impeachment. at that point we had a major
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controversy between the branches of our government. >> the oklahoma supreme court how had second thoughts. the very next day, the oklahoma supreme court dissolved their stay. said that the secrecy statute, in the ruling, they seemed kind of peeved that this process was rushed. but people are calling for their impeachment. >> i felt very disappointed in myself. i was reminded of something my stepfather, who is a lawyer, told me once when i was in law school stressing. he said to me, susanna, just remember, no matter what you do, no one will die. and in this instance, that, that wasn't true. >> at the oklahoma state penitentiary on april 29, 2014, clayton lockett was led to the execution chamber while charles warner waited in the wings. zeva bransetter witnessed the execution. >> it was my fourth execution to witness.
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it was scheduled for 6:00. eventually, they roll up the shade at 6:20. lockett was asked if he had a last statement, and he just said no. >> at 6:23 p.m., lockett was injected with midazolam to render him unconscious. >> at 6:31, the doctor checked consciousness, and the warden announced that the inmate was still conscious. a few minutes later, the doctor checked consciousness again and said the inmate is unconscious. >> a second drug was injected, intended to paralyze lockett. >> at 6:33, i noticed a reaction. there was a kicking of his leg. clayton lockett began to strain against the restraints. his body began to kind of buck. he was struggling and writhing. he looked like he was trying to get up off the gurney, to me. it was really very shocking. it was clear to me that clayton lockett was still conscious.
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it was clear to me that he was in pain. i heard him say man, you know, like he was shocked at whatever it was that he was feeling. and he was lifting his head up and shoulders clear off the gurney, mumbling something is wrong. and then the warden said ladies and gentlemen we need to temporarily close the blinds. and they closed the blinds and shut off the mic. >> i sat next to the victim's family at the execution. no one knew if he had died or if he lived or what was happening. they were concerned about that. >> the attorneys who are witnessing this on behalf of clayton lockett said they're going to revive him so they can kill him another day. >> the blinds would not reopen. and at 6:56 p.m., clayton lockett's execution was officially halted. >> we were taken back to the media witness center, but there
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was no clear discussion of what was going on with clayton lockett. >> is lockett dead? >> we don't know. >> we don't know the status. >> breaking news from the state prison in mcallister. >> the first of two scheduled executions at the prison did not go as planned. >> clayton lockett was supposed to receive the death penalty for killing a woman 15 years ago. but tonight his punishment is being referred to as a botched execution. >> things obviously went horribly wrong with mr. lockett's execution. >> my assistant reached me and told me that i needed to turn on a tv to see what was happening. the reports were that he was still alive. >> at 7:23 p.m., the man in charge of lockett's execution, robert patton addressed the media.
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>> ladies and gentlemen, i'm going to make a short statement, and i'll not be taking any questions. so please don't scrimmage holler at me. as those inside witnessed, the drugs are not having the effect. so the doctor observed the line and determined that the line had blown. it was my decision at that time to stop the execution. at approximately 7:06 hours, inmate suffered what appears to be a massive heart attack and passed away. >> why did you decide to lower the curtain? >> so the physician could check the vein. >> the vein blew. >> the vein? >> yes. >> lockett's vein? >> yes. >> blew. what does that mean? >> it means the vein exploded. >> his vein exploded. >> he said his vein exploded, which i thought was a really strange explanation, because veins don't generally explode. >> in the meantime, just down the hall from the death claim
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warner, scheduled to die immediately after lockett, was left in the dark. his family waited to attend his execution. >> the family was very, very deep in devout prayer. the mother was sobbing through her prayers. it was very sad. we waited for a long time. it became time for charles' execution, and we were still sitting in that room. and nobody was telling us anything. then another attorney came rushing into our room and said that there's not going to be an execution for charles warner that night. the family was crying with joy. mrs. warner said, you know, those prayers were heard by a higher being. we were so relieved.
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>> but the mood soon turned sour as prison officials seemed confused about what exactly was going on. >> we were going to go home. we were led out to the parking lot, and we started to get in the car. well, out of the building ran the warden, yelling at us, get back into this building. you're breaking protocol. you have to get back into the building. >> prison officials now told warner's family the execution would proceed. >> i was horrified. we went back into the building. and then we sat there for a while, not knowing if charles warner would be executed. i was angry. and perplexed. it was too late to go file anything in the court. we had no phone. finally, at some point, we were told that charles warner would not be executed. and we were told to go home. it was an incredible rollercoaster of emotions. >> investigations into the
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botched execution of clayton lockett eventually revealed what happened behind the blinds. >> we later learned that the doctor who was supposed to perform the execution had backed out two days before clayton lockett's execution, and this other doctor who had only performed one execution in the state stepped in. the doctor made 12 attempts to start an iv, and it was not properly inserted. the drugs were not delivered into his vein. they went into the tissue. there were no backup drugs that night. there was no emergency plan if something went wrong. >> regarding the use of midazolam, mike oakley from the corrections department said, i looked online, you know, went past the wikileaks or whatever it is and did find out midazolam would render a person unconscious. so we thought it was okay. >> obviously, they need someone
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who is better equipped at knowing if someone is rendered unconscious. >> after hitting an artery causing lockett's blood to spray, the doctor who executed lockett said he hoped to, quote, get enough money out of this to go buy a new jacket. >> what happened in oklahoma is deeply troubling. >> clayton lockett's case would bring worldwide attention to america's botched executions and questions about the future of lethal injection. >> human rights outrage. >> after botch everything the new, untested combination of drugs. >> said to be shaking uncontrollably. >> you got the imagery going on, someone poorly trained, brew up something in the back, in the kitchen saying, i've never tried this before. we'll see how it goes. >> and voices on both sides of the issue responded forcefully. >> the fact that there might be
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some pain during the process doesn't offend me. why are we planning the most pleasant death possible for people who have imposed the most unpleasant death. >> if that was your child, would you have sympathy. >> this man snored on the way to hell. >> he was killed by negligence of the states. >> the death penalty is a government program. and the government takes a week to deliver a piece of mail. what gives us the idea that the government can make life and death decisions with life and death accuracy. >> lockett should be given the same mercy that he gave his victim stephanie, and that would be none. >> our constitutional rights are with us until we die. we shouldn't dismiss them because we think the person who's being executed isn't deserving. >> we are saying to the world this is done as a considered, thoughtful moment of punishment.
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not as some rageful, heinous act. if that's the punishment we're imposing, then we're him. we're the heinous murderer. >> time is running out for convicted killer charles warner set to die at 6:00. >> nine months after clayton lockett's execution, oklahoma completed construction on a brand-new death chamber which they were now ready to use on charles warner. >> the microphone will come on, and the staff member will read the warrant of execution to the offender. the offender will be allowed to make a last statement. the first drug in a three-drug protocol, midazolam, will be administered. >> but warner's defense team had filed one last plea for a stay of execution with the u.s. supreme court, claiming the use of midazolam was a violation of the eighth amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. meanwhile, the mother of
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warner's victim, a 11 month old baby, made her feelings clear. >> if they want to honor me, it would be life in prison without the possibility of parole. i don't see any justice in just sentencing someone to die. to me, the justice is someone having to live with it the rest of their life, knowing that they're never going to walk out those bars. when he dies, i want it to be because it's his time, not because he's been executed due to what happened to me and my child. i don't want that on my hands. it makes me feel that i'm no different than him, and i don't want to feel that way. >> the time for warner's execution came and went as oklahoma waited for word from the u.s. supreme court about whether they could use midazolam on warner. at 6:20 p.m. the decision came down. justice sonia sotomayor wrote
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the fda has not approved the use of midazolam as the use of and aesthetic. but justice sotomayor's opinion was in the minority. >> ladies and gentlemen, the u.s. supreme court has denied the stay of execution. the process will begin shortly. i need the witnesses to prepare themselves for transport. on this episode of death row stories, a triple murder, execution style. >> they shot them like they were nothing. >> and the crime is caught on tape. >> most significant piece of evidence i've ever seen in a case. >> the clear images of guilt. >> the evidence establishes that he committed the crime. >> there's your guy. it's a slam dunk for the prosecution. >> only deepens the mystery. >> you're going to kill somebody. >> there's no doubt in my mind that he's innocent. >> there's a body on the water. >> he was butchered and
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murdered. >> many people proclaim their innocence. >> in this case, there are a number of things that stink. >> this man is remorseless. >> he needs to pay for it with his life. >> the electric chair flashed in front of my eyes. >> get a conviction at all costs. >> what's going on, ma'am? >> a mother's throat is slashed, and her two young sons are murdered. >> it was a bloodbath. and when a crime like this happens, someone in the house did this. no motive, no explanation. >> by god, somebody is going to pay for these two boys being murdered. >> materialistic, a temptress. > the state will seek the death penalty
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