Oklahoma executed Charles Warner on Thursday night, marking the first execution carried out in the state since the botched lethal injection of Clayton Lockett last year.
Warner was declared dead at 7:28pm CST after a procedure that reportedly lasted 18 minutes. While he showed no signs of apparent physical distress, he said out loud, “My body is on fire.”
“It hurts,” he said. “It feels like acid.”
According to Associated Press media witness Sean Murphy, Warner also said he had been struck with the needle five times.
After his microphone was turned off, Warner could still be heard from inside the chamber, where he said, “I’m not afraid to die.”
Convicted in 1997 of raping and killing an 11-month-old girl, Warner was scheduled to be put to death on April 29, 2014, the same night as Clayton Lockett. His execution was put on hold when Lockett began groaning and writhing in pain on the gurney after being injected with the lethal cocktail and declared unconscious; concerns over the drugs used in executions prompted state officials to put a temporary hold on death sentences until an investigation had been completed.
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