The Oklahoma grand jury tasked with looking into the state's troubled executions released its report last week, and the contents were troubling. The study found that jail staff did not verify which drugs they were using for lethal injections before giving them to death row inmates. And after the wrong drugs were administered, staff remained in the dark about their mistake.
The 100-page report rebuked Oklahoma officials for their negligence, reports Business Insider. In a statement regarding the study, Attorney General Scott Pruitt said “Today, I regret to advise the citizens of Oklahoma that the Department of Corrections failed to do its job.”
In one 2014 incident, an execution was halted after the needle popped out, spewing chemicals into the death chamber. The inmate was afterward seen writhing in pain on the gurney. It took him 45 minutes to die after being administered the wrong drug. Executions were halted while the study was undertaken.