EXECUTIONS: OKLAHOMA CAN’T GET ITS ACT TOGETHER

Hours before Richard Glossip’s scheduled execution, Oklahoma prison officials discovered that a pharmacist sent them potassium acetate because he could not get his hands on potassium chloride

Last April, Oklahoma botched the execution of Clayton Lockett who began breathing heavily, writhing, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow three minutes after the injection of midazolam followed by vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride, forcing a halt to his execution. Lockett died later of a heart attack.

One would think that Oklahoma would have stopped using a three-dose lethal drug cocktail and switched to a single dose of pentobarbital, which Texas and Georgia have used to carry out flawless executions. But no, Oklahoma is going to do it the Okie way and stick to its three-dose cocktail. That almost led them to botch the execution of Richard Glossip who was scheduled to be topped Wednesday evening.

Hours before Glossip’s scheduled execution, prison officials discovered that a pharmacist had sent them potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride. The pharmacist substituted the potassium acetate because he could not get his hands on potassium chloride. And he failed to notify prison authorities of the substitution.

Chalk this up as one big SNAFU. Gov. Mary Fallin was forced to order a 37-day stay of execution so the state could review its execution process. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt got pissed off at prison officials and asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to issue indefinite stays of execution for Richard Glossip, Benjamin Cole and John Grant.

The court granted Pruitt’s request and ordered the state to provide status reports every 30 days, "including any proposed adjustments to the execution protocol."

Maybe now Oklahoma will get its act together and switch its execution protocol from a three-dose drug cocktail to a single dose of pentobarbital.