1st Executions Since Botched Lethal Injection

A Georgia man, became the first inmate in the United States to be put to death since the botched execution of an Oklahoma man in April.

Marcus A. Wellons, 59, was declared dead at 11: 59 p.m. Tuesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, according to the Atlanta Journal –Constitution. Wellons’ execution was one of three scheduled in less than 24 hours. Wellons was convicted in 1933 of raping and killing India Roberts, 15, in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta.

The second man, John Winfield was put to death by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. CT Wednesday, a statement from the Missouri Department of Public Safety said. He was pronounced dead nice minutes later.

Lastly, John Ruthell Henry is scheduled to be executed at 6:00 p.m. today.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman, Lisa Rodriguez-Presley stated that the execution drug to be used was pentobarbital, the same as Georgia had used in the past. Georgia used a single execution drug, while Oklahoma used a lethal cocktail.

Clayton Lockett was put to death in April in Oklahoma, execution witnesses said Lockett, a convicted murderer and rapist, convulsed and writhed on the execution gurney and struggled to speak before officials blocked the witnesses’ view. Lockett died of a heart attack 43 minutes after being administered the first drug. A team that prepared Lockett for execution in April failed to set a properly functioning I-V in his leg, according to preliminary findings of an independent autopsy last week.

Georgia, Missouri and Florida all refuse to say where they obtain their drugs, or if they are tested. Lawyers for Wellons and Winfield had challenged the secretive process used by some states to obtain lethal injection drugs from unidentified, loosely regulated compounding pharmacies.

Georgia and Missouri both use the single drug pentobarbital, a sedative. Florida uses a three-drug combination of midazolam hydrochloride, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride.