Executed Inmate’s Brother Sues Oklahoma

The brother of a death row inmate whose problematic lethal injection in April prompted a rewrite of Oklahoma’s execution protocols is suing the state.

Gary Lockett claims in a lawsuit filed Monday that his brother Clayton’s April 29 execution violated the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Lockett writhed on the gurney, mumbled and strained to lift his head, and his execution was halted before he died 43 minutes after the process began.

Defendants in the lawsuit include Gov. Mary Fallin, Oklahoma prison officials, members of the execution team, the manufacturers of the drugs and the compounding pharmacies that mixed them.

Clayton Lockett was convicted of shooting 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman with a sawed-off shotgun and watching as two accomplices buried her alive in 1999.