OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A Democratic state senator and U.S. Senate candidate from Oklahoma City says she will introduce a resolution calling for a one-year moratorium on the death penalty.
Sen. Connie Johnson said Wednesday she planned to introduce the resolution in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Johnson is the latest in a growing chorus of voices for an execution moratorium following the state’s botched execution of an inmate Tuesday night at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
After being declared unconscious, Clayton Lockett clenched his teeth and writhed uncontrollably on the gurney after he was injected with a new three-drug protocol that had never been used in Oklahoma.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday Oklahoma fell short of a “fundamental standard” that the death penalty be carried out humanely.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.