Lethal injection: A painless execution or a deadly weapon?

Clayton D Lockett: An hour before the execution began on April 29, 2014, the governor was notified that the executioner was having problems finding a usable vein, but she did not intervene. Ten minutes after the administration of the first drug, a sedative, the physician supervising the process announced that the inmate was unconscious, and therefore ready to receive the other two drugs that would actually kill him. Three minutes after the latter two drugs were injected, Lockett reportedly began breathing heavily, writhing on the gurney, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow. Lockett died 43 minutes after the execution began, of a heart attack, while still in the execution chamber.