Mumia Abu Jamal on the botched execution in Oklahoma

Execution in Oklahoma

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He tossed. He turned. He moaned. He burned.

Clayton Lockett, on the death gurney of Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections spoke words, struggled, and reportedly kicked his legs for 43 minutes after a toxic cocktail was administered to him, to kill him.

That cocktail, an experimental mix of chemicals designed to stop his respiration, still his heart and do so relatively painlessly failed to do so, as he apparently never lost consciousness.

Some ten minutes after the execution was called off, Lockett’s heart went into arrest – a heart attack – and he left this life.

American death states are experimenting with various mixes because international chemical companies are now refusing to service the U.S. death penalty machine.

Left to their own resources, they’re literally experimenting. And as the Lockett execution has demonstrated, they are doing it badly.

The American Way of Death is sloppy. Their way bears an uncanny resemblance to torture, for in Lockett’s case, his viens reportedly burst from the pressure of the lethal IV.

The U.S. death penalty system is torture; the psychological torture of sustained isolation in solitary confinement. And then, after the soul is dead, the poisoning of the body. The American Way of Death.

From Imprisoned Nation, this is Mumia Abu Jamal.

Commentaries courtesy of Prison Radio. Photo credit: Ken Piorkowski via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license.