Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton after announcing he had received the wrong execution drugs.
Sue Ogrocki / ASSOCIATED PRESS
A grand jury investigation into Oklahoma's execution mistakes found that the department of corrections "failed to do its job," according to Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office.
"A number of individuals responsible for carrying out the execution process were carless, cavalier and in some circumstances dismissive of established procedures that were intended to guard against the very mistakes that occurred," Pruitt said in a statement.
The grand jury began investigating Oklahoma’s execution methods in October, after the state called off an execution due to obtaining the wrong drug. Shortly thereafter, it was disclosed that the state had used the incorrect drug in an execution in January.
"People of the state of Oklahoma are sick and tired of being ridiculed nationally and internationally about" 2014's botched execution, Oklahoma County Judge Donald Deason said from the bench of an earlier execution that went awry. He said the public needs to know "that somebody has looked into the monkey business that has been going on at the Oklahoma Department of Corrections."
Since then, three state officials resigned: Warden Anita Trammell, who oversaw the prison where executions take place, the head of the Department of Corrections Robert Patton, and Gov. Mary Fallin’s general counsel, Steve Mullins.
While the grand jury investigated, BuzzFeed News discovered that the department of corrections was informed it had used the wrong drug in April 2015 — months before it was made public, and months before it obtained, and nearly used, the wrong drug in another execution.
Patton attempted to carry out three executions during his short tenure in Oklahoma. Each time, there was a major screw-up. BuzzFeed News reported that many errors Patton made in Oklahoma were similar to ones made during his time at his previous job in Arizona.
After the grand jury began, the department and the governor's office hired two high-power outside lawyers to represent them. One of the attorneys attempted to quash subpoenas in the investigation, but that request was denied.
Emails sent by an internal affairs agent who worked with Patton speculated that he may have been "forced out" as a "fall" guy for execution mistakes.
“The pharmacist is the one who substituted the drug without telling us,” agent Stephanie Burk wrote in an email obtained by BuzzFeed News.
“The doctor should have caught it too before it was used on Warner. He/she caught it before it was used on Glossip, which started this latest mess. He/she felt so bad and apologized profusely. But someone had to take the fall and you can’t fire the pharmacist or the doctor, so…"
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