McALESTER, Okla. – The director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said the provider of the state’s lethal injections delivered the wrong compound for Richard Glossip’s execution – without telling the state.
Robert Patton told reporters that corrections officers opened a sealed container around 1 p.m. Wednesday, only to find Potassium Acetate, not the approved Potassium Chloride compound.
The state determined it could not acquire the correct drug in a timely manner.
“By the provider supplying us with Potassium Acetate, a legal ambiguity was created that needed to be cleared up before moving forward,” Patton said. “Out of an abundance of caution, it was my request to Gov. Fallin that she provide a stay of execution.”
Fallin did grant that 37-day stay of execution Wednesday, around the time Richard Glossip was set to be executed for his role in the death of Barry Van Treese.
“I hope people realize that Oklahoma is trying to do the right thing and to make sure they get their processes right,” she told NewsChannel 4 Thursday. “Did we have the appropriate protocol? And, we wanted to make sure it was fair, that it was right, that we were following what the protocol says, and so I issued a stay of execution until we could answer that question.”
The Department of Corrections said it was told it would have access to the legally-accepted drugs a month before Glossip was set to be executed. The department didn’t catch the mix-up two weeks ago, Patton said, because the execution was stayed before the sealed box was ever opened.
The drugs were then returned to the unnamed provider because federal law does not allow the state to keep the drugs overnight.
As for why the wrong drug was delivered in the first place, Patton said the provider did not have Potassium Chloride. When Patton called the provider to ask about the drug Wednesday, he was told the two compounds work exactly the same.
Patton said it’s too early to speculate if Potassium Acetate would be added to the list of permitted compounds for execution.
Thursday, Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed a request for an indefinite stay of the three executions on the state’s schedule. In a statement, he said:
The state owes it to the people of Oklahoma to ensure that, on their behalf, it can properly and lawfully administer the sentence of death imposed by juries for the most heinous crimes. Not until shortly before the scheduled execution did the Department of Corrections notify my office that it did not obtain the necessary drugs to carry out the execution in accordance with the protocol. Until my office knows more about these circumstances and gains confidence that DOC can carry out executions in accordance with the execution protocol, I am asking the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to issue an indefinite stay of all scheduled executions. I am mindful of the families who have suffered an agonizing time through this process, and my heart breaks for them. At least three families have waited a combined 48 years for closure and finality after losing a loved one. Yet, they deserve to know, and all Oklahomans need to know with certainty, that the system is working as intended.
Oklahoma’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the state for its inability to carry out Wednesday’s scheduled execution.
“We had a system that apparently failed to function so badly that up until after the execution was set to begin, they somehow did not realize they did not even have the right drugs on hand to do the execution,” said legal director Brady Henderson. “That’s incredibly disturbing and frightening. That level of incompetence is hard to comprehend, particularly when we’ve had such scrutiny on our execution process.”
But, Corrections Director Robert Patton told the media what happened was not a failure.
“When I was informed this was a different name of the drug, the protocol worked,” he said. “I said stop. That’s what the protocol is supposed to do. Nothing failed in the protocol.
“I’m just happy and proud the staff came forward yesterday when they noticed something wasn’t right, the training kicked in,” he said.
Patton said he took it upon himself to deliver the news to the family of Barry Van Treese, calling the explanation the most difficult 15 minutes of his life.
