Transcripts for CNN Death Row Stories 20200203 05:52:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
way down to his stomach. gasping like a fish. it was extraordinarily loud. i started doing, you know, hash marks in my notebook. each time that he would make that sucking sound, he was gulping. he was gasping, he was struggling to breathe. i eventually counted 240 hash marks. went on and on. and i wondered is someone going to stop this execution. there were two lawyers sitting next to me, and i saw them get up and go out. one full hour into the execution, joseph wood was still alive. baish called for the execution to be halted. we immediately filed a motion with the federal district court asking the federal judge to stop the execution. they got an assistant attorney general on the phone. and he said, he s unconscious. he s not feeling any pain. the judge said, well, do you
they ve tried everything. this is like their last-ditch effort to proceed with executions. with less than 24 hours to go, the oklahoma supreme court agreed to hear susanna s argument and granted clayton lockett and charles warner a rare stay of execution. that decision would set off one of the biggest political firestorms in state history. these are evildoers. these are animals. you can call them demons, if you may. we want justice.
there was a kicking of his leg. clayton lockett began to strain against the restraints. his body began to kind of buck. he was struggling and writhing. he looked like he was trying to get up off the gurney to me. it was really very shocking. it was clear to me that clayton lockett was still conscious. it was clear to me that he was in pain. i heard him say, man, you know, like he was shocked at whatever it was that he was feeling. and he was lifting his head up and shoulders clear off the gurney, mumbling something is wrong. and then the warden said, ladies and gentlemen we need to temporarily close the blinds. and they csed the blinds shut off the mike. i sat next to the victim s family at the execution. no one knew if he had died or if he lived or what was happening.
they were concerned about that. the attorneys who are witnessing this on behalf of clayton lockett said they re going to revive him so they can kill him another day. the blinds would not reopen. and at 6:56 p.m., clayton lockett s execution was officially halted. we were taken back to the media witness center, but there was no clear discussion of what was going on with clayton lockett. is lockett dead? we don t know. we don t know the status. we don t know the status. breaking news from the state prison in mcallister. the first of two scheduled executions at the prison did not go as planned. clayton lockett was supposed to receive the death penalty for killing a woman 15 years ago. but tonight his punishment is being referred to as a botched execution. things obviously went horribly wrong with mr. lockett s execution. my assistant reached me and told me that i needed to turn on a tv to see what was happening. the reports were that he was