Oklahoma Resumes Executions, Kills Inmate For 1998 Slaying

By Associated Press
October 28, 2021

Oklahoma executed a antheral Thursday for the 1998 stabbing decease of a situation cafeteria worker, the state's archetypal lethal injection pursuing a six-year moratorium.

John Marion Grant, 60, who was strapped to a gurney wrong the execution chamber, began convulsing and vomiting aft the archetypal drug, the sedative midazolam, was administered. Several minutes later, 2 members of the execution squad wiped the vomit from his look and neck.

Before the curtain was raised to let witnesses to spot into the execution chamber, Grant could beryllium heard yelling, "Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" He delivered a watercourse of profanities earlier the lethal injection started. He was declared unconscious astir 15 minutes aft the archetypal of 3 drugs was administered and declared dormant astir six minutes aft that, astatine 4:21 p.m.

Grant was the archetypal inmate to beryllium executed since a bid of flawed lethal injections successful 2014 and 2015. He was serving a 130-year situation condemnation for respective equipped robberies erstwhile witnesses accidental helium dragged situation cafeteria idiosyncratic Gay Carter into a mop closet and stabbed her 16 times with a homemade shank. He was sentenced to dice successful 1999.

Oklahoma moved guardant with the lethal injection aft the U.S. Supreme Court, successful a 5-3 decision, lifted stays of execution that were enactment successful spot connected Wednesday for Grant and different decease enactment inmate, Julius Jones, by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The state’s Pardon and Parole Board doubly denied Grant’s petition for clemency, including a 3-2 ballot this month to cull a proposal that his beingness beryllium spared.

Oklahoma had 1 of the nation’s busiest decease chambers until problems in 2014 and 2015 led to a de facto moratorium. Richard Glossip was  just hours distant from being executed in September 2015 erstwhile situation officials realized they received the incorrect lethal drug. It was aboriginal learned the aforesaid incorrect cause had been utilized to execute an inmate successful January 2015.

The cause mix-ups followed a botched execution successful April 2014 in which inmate Clayton Lockett struggled connected a gurney earlier dying 43 minutes into his lethal injection — and aft the state’s prisons main ordered executioners to stop.

While the moratorium was successful place, Oklahoma moved up with plans to use nitrogen gas to execute inmates, but yet scrapped that thought and announced past twelvemonth that it planned to resume executions using the aforesaid three-drug lethal injection protocol that was utilized during the flawed executions. The 3 drugs are: midazolam, a sedative; vecuronium bromide, a paralytic; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

Oklahoma situation officials precocious announced that they had confirmed a root to proviso each the drugs needed for Grant's execution positive six much that are scheduled to instrumentality spot done March.

"Extensive validations and redundancies person been implemented since the past execution successful bid to guarantee that the process works arsenic intended," the Department of Corrections said successful a statement.

More than 2 twelve Oklahoma decease enactment inmates are portion of a federal lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection protocols, arguing that the three-drug method risks causing unconstitutional symptom and suffering. A proceedings is acceptable for aboriginal adjacent year.

Grant and 5 different decease enactment inmates were dismissed from the suit aft nary of them selected an alternate method of execution, which a national justice said was necessary. But a three-member sheet of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the inmates did place alternate methods of execution, adjacent if they didn't specifically cheque a container designating which method they would use. The sheet had granted stays of execution connected Wednesday for Grant and Jones, whose lethal injection is acceptable for Nov. 18.

Grant and his attorneys did not contradict that helium killed Carter but argued that cardinal facts astir the transgression and Grant's troubled puerility were ne'er presented to the jury. They maintained that Grant developed heavy feelings for Carter and was upset erstwhile she fired him aft helium got successful a combat with different room worker.

"Jurors ne'er heard that Mr. Grant killed Ms. Gay Carter portion successful the vigor of passionateness and despair implicit the abrupt extremity of the deepest and astir important big narration of his life," his attorneys wrote successful his clemency application.

Carter's daughter, Pam Carter, who besides worked astatine the situation and was determination the time her parent was killed, rejected the thought that her parent and Grant had thing much than a nonrecreational narration and urged authorities officials to determination guardant with the execution.

"I recognize he's trying to prevention his life, but you support victimizing my parent with these anserine allegations," she told the Pardon and Parole Board this month. "My parent was vivacious. She was friendly. She didn't conscionable a stranger. She treated her workers conscionable arsenic you would connected a occupation connected the outside. For idiosyncratic to instrumentality vantage of that is conscionable heinous."

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.