Botched Execution Halts Another in Okla.

An untested drug cocktail led to a botched execution of an Oklahoma prisoner on Tuesday night. Clayton Lockett’s vein failed upon the administration of the drugs and the execution was halted after 20 minutes. He then suffered a “massive heart attack” and died. As a result, a second execution, that of Charles F. Warner, was stayed for 14 days. Both men were set to be executed on Tuesday night after a string of hearings and appeals failed. Oklahoma overcame the prisoners’ objections in court that the state wouldn't disclose the source of the new drug combination. According to the director of corrections, Robert Patton, it was not the drugs used, but the way they were administered that caused the problem. Lockett had been convicted of shooting and then burying alive a 19-year-old woman in 1999, while Warner was found guilty of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old girl in 1997.