On June 3, 1999, Clayton Lockett, a 23 year-old just ten months out of prison on an embezzlement charge, stole a car, picked up two accomplices and headed to the home of Bobby Bornt. Lockett had made a deal with Bornt to cover up an unwanted tattoo for twenty dollars. Bornt had given payment to a mutual acquaintance, but Lockett claimed he never received it.
Bobby Bornt was asleep on his sofa when his front door was kicked in. Clayton Lockett burst in brandishing a shotgun. He cracked Bornt in the head with the butt of the gun and, as Bornt lay bleeding, the three intruders ransacked the home. Stephanie Neiman, a recent high-school graduate, stopped by with a friend to ask Bornt to a party. The two young girls innocently walked in through the open front door, in the middle of the assault on Bornt.
Lockett and his cohorts bound Bornt with duct tape. They beat Stephanie and beat and raped Stephanie's friend and then forced the three outside to Bornt's and Stephanie's vehicles. Lockett took the lead and drove with Bornt. The two accomplices rode with Stephanie and her friend. Lockett drove to a remote area of Kay County, Oklahoma. He ordered his accomplices to dig a hole while he dragged Stephanie's friend off to rape her again. When he returned, they bound Stephanie and her friend with duct tape. Lockett shot Stephanie twice and kicked her into the hole, giving instruction to cover her up, despite her obvious writhing and audible moans. He drove everyone back to Bornt's house. He let Bornt and Stephanie's friend out, threatening to come back and kill them if they contacted the police.
They next morning, the two survivors of the ordeal went to the local police.
Lockett was picked up and questioned by police, eventually admitting guilt. At trial, he was convicted of first degree murder, as well as eighteen additional counts, including rape, assault, conspiracy and kidnapping. Lockett was sentenced to 2,285 years in prison for the lesser charges, but received the death penalty for committing premeditated murder.
On April 29, 2014, Clayton Lockett lay strapped to a gurney in a small, cinder-block room in Oklahoma State Prison. His outstretched arms were rendered immobile under the thick leather restraints encircling his wrists. At 6:23 pm, the first of a deadly three-part "cocktail" was injected into the IV tubes that had previously been inserted into Lockett's arm. A minute later he was declared unconscious. But, to the surprise of the prison staff, Lockett began to exhale and writhe on the table. He lifted his head up and muttered, "I'm not" and "Something's wrong." The two remaining drugs were administered, in spite of Lockett's actions. He thrashed more, until, at 7:03 pm, he was pronounced dead. It was determined that he had suffered a heart attack.
A lot of controversy has surrounded the so-called "botched" execution. Several pharmaceutical companies have forbidden their products to be used for government-sanctioned lethal injection. In a scramble to find a substitute, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections used an untested combination of drugs on Lockett. A similar mixture had been used in Florida in 2013, but the dosages varied. A large number media outlets have condemned the incident as "barbaric" and "inappropriate in a civilized society." Even the White House said the execution "fell short of humane standards."
Taking his actions of June 3, 1999 into consideration, I think that while Lockett was squirming uncomfortably on that gurney, someone should have kicked him in his fucking head.
But, that's my personal opinion.
A guillotine would be more effective, but I'm uncomfortable with the death penalty. It just makes us as a society of murderers and makes other countries look at us as barbarians -- but I understand your impulse to kick him in the head. Didn't the Mayans or someone used to play a soccer-type game with their enemies' heads? I bet that would make for popular tv.
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