--- title: Obama Says Botched Oklahoma Execution 'Deeply Troubling' description: It was the President's first time weighing in on an execution gone wrong in Oklahoma canonical: https://time.com/86034/obama-says-botched-oklahoma-execution-deeply-troubling/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-02T17:00:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:23.013Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Says Botched Oklahoma Execution 'Deeply Troubling' og:description: It was the President's first time weighing in on an execution gone wrong in Oklahoma og:url: https://time.com/86034/obama-says-botched-oklahoma-execution-deeply-troubling/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10352254cacecfd4/69868d99cd6848226109473b/172c88d8306146169863d06ca4265ea4-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5000 og:image:height: 2813 og:image:alt: Barack Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Says Botched Oklahoma Execution 'Deeply Troubling' twitter:description: It was the President's first time weighing in on an execution gone wrong in Oklahoma twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10352254cacecfd4/69868d99cd6848226109473b/172c88d8306146169863d06ca4265ea4-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Says Botched Oklahoma Execution 'Deeply Troubling' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Oklahoma Botches Execution [Watch (HLS stream): Oklahoma Botches Execution](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5bYam3AB.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2014-04-30. Oklahoma botched a death row inmate's lethal injection so badly his vein exploded and he died of a heart attack._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 2, 2014 5:00 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama answers a question during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House in Washington, D.C., May 2, 2014. U.S. President Barack Obama answers a question during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House in Washington, D.C., May 2, 2014. Charles Dharapak—AP by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 2, 2014 5:00 PM UTC President Barack Obama weighed in for the first time Friday on [the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma](http://time.com/82787/oklahoma-botched-execution-clayton-lockett-lethal-injection-problems/) this week, calling the incident “deeply troubling.” Speaking to reporters from the White House Rose Garden, Obama raised questions about the way the death penalty is applied in the United States, even as he said continues to believe the death penalty is warranted in particularly heinous instances. “In the application of the death penalty in this country we have seen significant problems: Racial bias, uneven application of the death penalty, situations in which there were individuals on death row who were later discovered to be innocent because of exculpatory evidence,” Obama said, adding that the Oklahoma incident “highlights” the broader issue. Obama said he will discuss the incident, and broader government policy toward the death penalty, with Attorney General Eric Holder. “I think as a society we have to ask ourselves some difficult and profound questions,” Obama said. ## Transcript He was struggling to talk, but those were the words we got out. Man, I'm not, and something dropped. They may be the last words spoken by Oklahoma inmate, Clayton Lockett uttered during his botched execution. Lockett's vein exploded during the lethal injection, prompting authorities to quickly halt the procedure. It was my decision at that time to stop the execution. The first drug in lethal injection cocktail is supposed to render a person unconscious. But witnesses say Lockett was still conscious seven minutes after that first injection. At sixteen minutes, he seemingly tried to get up and talk. It was then that prison officials closed the blinds, shutting out the media gathered to witness. We didn't know what was happening on the other side of the blinds. We didn't know if he was still dying, or if they were still pumping drugs in him. 43 minutes after the first injection, Lockett died. The inmate suffered what appears to be a massive heart attack and passed away. Lockett and Charles Warner, the inmate set to be executed after Lockett Tuesday, both convicted of rape and murder were at the center of a court fight over the drugs used in their execution. Oklahoma's high court initially stayed their executions only to lift those stays last week, saying the men had no right to know the source of the drugs intended to kill them. They wanted to hurry up and get it done with as little transparency as possible. 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