The prisoner who was injected with a mummifying drug

The prisoner who was injected with a mummifying drug

In 2015, Oklahoma Corrections Department officials used the wrong drug to stop an inmate's heart during a botched execution. They were supposed to use potassium chloride to stop Charles Frederick Warner's heart. Instead, they pumped him with potassium acetate, a drug which is used in mixtures for tissue preservation, mummification and embalming, according to the Oklahoman's investigation into the inmate's autopsy report. At the time of his execution on January 15, Warner, a convicted child rapist and murderer, took 18 minutes to die. “It feels like acid,” said Warner. “My body is on fire.” Nevertheless, a reporter present said it did not appear that he was in any pain, as he never raised his head off the gurney, and did not go into convulsions as previous inmates had. Now the story in Full Oklahoma used the wrong drug to execute Charles Warner in January, according to autopsy records obtained by the The Oklahoman on Thursday. The state uses a three-drug cocktail to execute death-row inmates. First, the sedative midazolam is injected, followed by pancuronium bromide, a paralytic. The third drug, potassium chloride, is then used to stop the heart. But according to the autopsy records, Oklahoma used vials of potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride in Warner’s lethal injection. The state’s execution protocol only allows the use of potassium chloride. The drug mix-up first came to light when Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issued a last-minute stay of execution for Richard Glossip on September 30 after corrections officials discovered they had purchased potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride. On October 2, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals