An anti-death penalty group found that lethal injections of Black people in the United States were botched more than twice as often as those of white people, The New York Times reports. The story cites the example of Clayton Lockett, whose 2014 execution was described by the prison warden as “a bloody mess.” A new report released by Reprieve, a human rights group that opposes the death penalty, adds to previous research about racial disparities associated with the death penalty.
The New York Times story describes Lockett’s final hours in 2014, which prompted Oklahoma to overhaul its execution protocols and stop executions for several years. “(M)edical officials struggled to gain access to a vein to administer a lethal injection. They inserted needles in his arms, his neck, his chest and eventually his groin, where they mistakenly struck an artery. The execution was called off, but with most of the drugs having already been injected, Mr. Lockett was pronounced dead on the table about 20 minutes later. “