Oklahoma to continue lethal injections after inmate vomits during execution

Oklahoma Correctional Institution
(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Oklahoma's prison system director, Scott Crow, said Friday the state would not change its lethal injection protocols after the first person executed by Oklahoma since 2015 vomited and convulsed after receiving the first drug in the state's three-drug execution sequence.

Reporters who have witnessed previous executions said it was extremely rare for a condemned inmate to vomit during an execution, according to The New York Times. But Crow said the doctor who monitored John Marion Grant's execution told him it was "not a completely uncommon occurrence" for a person to vomit when given a sedative like the first drug in Oklahoma's execution protocol, says The Oklahoman.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.