Victim's Family, Inmate's Attorney, Fallin, ACLU Statements Regarding Executions

The following are statements provided by the victim's family, Governor Mary Fallin, Charles Warner's attorney and the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma regarding Tuesday's execution of Clayton Lockett.

Victim's Family:

This statement comes from a handwritten letter from Lockett's victim's mom and dad.

The first line says, "We are happy this day has finally arrived and justice will finally be served."

Another line from the letter states, "Stephanie (the victim) was highly involved in vacation bible school at church and loved children."

Governor Mary Fallin:

"I have asked the Department of Corrections to conduct a full review of Oklahoma's execution procedures to determine what happened and why during this evening's execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett," said Fallin. "I have issued an executive order delaying the execution of Charles Frederick Warner for 14 days to allow for that review to be completed."

Madeline Cohen, attorney for Charles Warner:

"After weeks of Oklahoma refusing to disclose basic information about the drugs for tonight's lethal injection procedures, tonight, Clayton Lockett was tortured to death.

'Without question, we must get complete answers about what went wrong. There must be an independent investigation conducted by a third-party entity, not the Department of Corrections. We also need an autopsy by an independent pathologist and full transparency about the results of its findings. Additionally, the state must disclose complete information about the drugs, including their purity, efficacy, source and the results of any testing. Until much more is known about tonight's failed experiment of an execution, no execution can be permitted in Oklahoma."

Ryan Kiesel, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma:

"In Oklahoma's haste to conduct a science experiment on two men behind a veil of secrecy, our state has disgraced itself before the nation and world. The greatest power any government has over an individual is to take that person's life. More than any other power, the exercise of the power to kill must be accompanied by due process and transparency. This evening we saw what happens when we allow the government to act in secret at its most powerful moment and the consequences of trading due process for political posturing. This is not about whether these two men are guilty; that is not in dispute. Rather, it comes down to whether we trust the government enough to allow it to kill its citizens, even guilty ones, in a secret process."

Brady Henderson, Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma:

"We hope that courts will reconsider whether transparency about the drugs used in executions is required as a matter of law. After tonight, there's no speculation needed to appreciate that there are fundamental failures in our execution process. It is important to remember that the State of Oklahoma continues to deny relatively simple requests from condemned men to find out about the drugs that will be used to kill them. There are serious concerns about the lethal injection process in light of more and more botched executions conducted with questionable drugs from questionable sources, and an Oklahoma law now bars inmates (and everybody else) from finding out important information needed to ensure compliance with the Constitution. In other words, it puts a veil of secrecy over one of the most grave functions of state government--killing its own citizens. If we are to have executions at all, they must not be conducted like hastily thrown together human science experiments."