Oklahoma conducted its first execution since 2015 on the evening of Thursday, October 28, 2021, ending a de facto moratorium that had been in effect for the past six years following multiple “botched” executions. The problems that led to a halt in executions appeared to resurface on Thursday, as John Marion Grant, 60-years-old, experienced body convulsions and vomited while the lethal drugs were administered.
Sean Murphy, a reporter from the Associated Press stated that Grant “jerked nearly two dozen times before vomit spurted from his mouth and spilled down his neck.” After the execution team wiped Grant’s face – he was declared unconscious at 4:15pm. Shortly thereafter, the second and third drugs of the three-part lethal cocktail went through Grant’s IV, and he was pronounced dead at 4:21pm.
The day before the execution, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit partially granted a motion to stay the executions of Grant and fellow Oklahoma death row prisoner Julius Jones (set for execution on November 18). But, keeping with recent practice, the U.S. Supreme Court quickly vacated the stays, allowing for Grant’s execution to proceed.
As accounts from Grant’s execution became public on Thursday evening, death penalty experts and commentators quickly drew comparisons to the previous problematic executions in Oklahoma, including Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner in 2014 and early 2015. In the case of Lockett’s execution, the execution team was forced to stop administering the drugs as it was apparent Lockett was still conscious and attempting to get off the gurney. After nearly 40 minutes, Lockett was pronounced dead after suffering a heart attack that was induced by the drugs. On the night of Warner’s execution in January of 2015, using the wrong drug – it took Warner 18 minutes to be declared deceased.
In July of 2020, 35 of the then-48 prisoners on Oklahoma’s death row filed an amended complaint in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the State’s execution protocol, and Judge Friot of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma set the case for trial on the Eighth Amendment issue. However, six of the prisoners, including Grant and Jones, were subsequently dismissed from the suit, as the Court determined they had failed to designate an alternative execution method as required by the law. Shortly after that ruling, the state of Oklahoma issued death warrants for the six men no longer a part of the lawsuit. But, on October 15, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that the lower court had abused its discretion in dismissing the men from challenging the state’s execution protocol, ultimately granting a stay of execution for both Grant and Jones. The State appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, and just hours Grant’s execution was set to take place, the Court vacated the stays of execution on a 5-3 vote without further comment.
The trial for the remaining plaintiffs is still set to commence on February 28, 2022. Meanwhile, six other execution dates remain in place in Oklahoma through the beginning of March. In response to the outcry over Grant’s execution, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said that the execution “was completed without complication and in accordance with Oklahoma statute and Department of Corrections policy.”
Read more:
- Statement from attorney Dale Baich
- Statement from attorney Sarah Jernigan
- Statement of Robert Dunham, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center.