Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-7955_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

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

7 

Opinion of the Court 

evening, the execution team spent nearly an hour making
at  least  one  dozen  attempts  to  establish  intravenous  (IV)
access to Lockett’s cardiovascular system, including at his 
arms  and  elsewhere  on  his  body.    The  team  eventually 
believed  that  it  had  established  intravenous  access 
through  Lockett’s  right  femoral  vein,  and  it  covered  the 
injection  access  point  with  a  sheet,  in  part  to  preserve
Lockett’s  dignity  during  the  execution.    After  the  team 
administered  the  midazolam  and  a  physician  determined 
that Lockett was unconscious, the team next administered 
the paralytic agent (vecuronium bromide) and most of the
potassium chloride.  Lockett began to move and speak, at
which point the physician lifted the sheet and determined
that  the  IV  had  “infiltrated,”  which  means  that  “the  IV 
fluid,  rather  than  entering  Lockett’s  blood  stream,  had
leaked  into  the  tissue  surrounding  the  IV  access  point.” 
Warner  v.  Gross,  776  F. 3d  721,  725  (CA10  2015)  (case 
below).  The  execution  team  stopped  administering  the
remaining  potassium  chloride  and  terminated  the  execu-
tion  about  33  minutes  after  the  midazolam  was  first  in-
jected.  About  10  minutes  later,  Lockett  was  pronounced 
dead. 

An  investigation  into  the  Lockett  execution  concluded 
that  “the  viability  of  the  IV  access  point  was  the  single
greatest factor that contributed to the difficulty in admin-
istering  the  execution  drugs.”  App.  398.  The  investiga-
tion,  which  took  five  months  to  complete,  recommended
several  changes  to  Oklahoma’s  execution  protocol,  and 
Oklahoma adopted a new protocol with an effective date of 
September  30,  2014.    That  protocol  allows  the  Oklahoma
Department of Corrections to choose among four different
drug  combinations.  The  option  that  Oklahoma  plans  to
use  to  execute  petitioners  calls  for  the  administration  of
500 milligrams of midazolam followed by a paralytic agent