Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-7955_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 99.0

Cite as:  576 U. S. ____ (2015) 

3 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

quent injections of pancuronium and potassium chloride,” 
id.,  at  49.  Based  on  that  premise,  the  Court  ultimately 
rejected  the  challenge  to  Kentucky’s  protocol,  with  the 
plurality  opinion  concluding  that  the  State’s  procedures
for administering these three drugs ensured there was no
“objectively intolerable risk” of severe pain.  Id., at 61–62 
(internal quotation marks omitted). 

B 
For  many  years,  Oklahoma  performed  executions  using
the  same  three  drugs  at  issue  in  Baze.  After  Baze  was 
decided,  however,  the  primary  producer  of  sodium  thio­
pental refused to continue permitting the drug to be used 
in  executions.  Ante,  at  4–5.  Like  a  number  of  other 
States,  Oklahoma  opted  to  substitute  pentobarbital,  an­
other barbiturate, in its place.  But in March 2014, shortly 
before  two  scheduled  executions,  Oklahoma  found  itself 
unable to secure this drug.  App. 144. 

The  State  rescheduled  the  executions  for  the  following
month  to  give  it  time  to  locate  an  alternative  anesthetic. 
In  less  than  a  week,  a  group  of  officials  from  the  Okla- 
homa Department of Corrections and the Attorney General’s 
office  selected  midazolam  to  serve  as  a  replacement  for 
pentobarbital.  Id., at 145, 148–149. 

Soon thereafter, Oklahoma used midazolam for the first 
time  in  its  execution  of  Clayton  Lockett.    That  execution 
did  not  go  smoothly.  Ten  minutes  after  an  intravenous 
(IV)  line  was  set  in  Lockett’s  groin  area  and  100  milli­
grams  of  midazolam  were  administered,  an  attending
physician  declared  Lockett  unconscious.    Id.,  at  392–393. 
When the paralytic and potassium chloride were adminis­
tered,  however,  Lockett  awoke.    Ibid.  Various  witnesses 
reported  that  Lockett  began  to  writhe  against  his  re­
straints,  saying,  “[t]his  s***  is  f***ing  with  my  mind,” 
“something  is  wrong,”  and  “[t]he  drugs  aren’t  working.” 
Id.,  at  53  (internal  quotation  marks  omitted).    State  offi­