Autopsy shows executed Oklahoma inmate John Marion Grant breathed in vomit
The state autopsy on the first inmate executed in Oklahoma in more than six years shows he inhaled his own vomit during the lethal injection procedure.
John Marion Grant, 60, was put to death Oct. 28 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
His execution was widely described as botched after media witnesses reported he repeatedly convulsed and vomited on the gurney after being administered the first drug.
A state pathologist, Dr. Jeremy Shelton, conducted the autopsy the day after the execution at the medical examiner's office in Tulsa. The doctor put "JUDICIAL EXECUTION BY LETHAL INJECTION" as the cause of death and homicide as the manner.
The doctor reported finding vomitus in the inmate's mouth, nostrils and airways. He also reported finding "heavy lungs" and bleeding in the tongue.
The autopsy will be put into evidence at an upcoming trial in Oklahoma City federal court over the constitutionality of the state's execution protocol.
Death row inmates are complaining the first drug, the sedative midazolam, does not work like it is supposed to and will expose them to extreme pain and suffering.
They are asking U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot to find the procedure in violation of the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The trial begins Feb. 28.
Grant was executed after he was kicked out of the lawsuit for failing to pick an alternative method. The report on his autopsy was finalized Jan. 24.
A new expert hired to testify on behalf of the inmates concluded Grant "began to drown in his own vomit" at one point.
The expert, Dr. Gail A. Van Norman, an anesthesiology professor at the University of Washington, reviewed witness accounts of the execution and the autopsy report.
"Findings by the medical examiner would show that Mr. Grant had actually sucked the vomitus all the way into the lower reaches of the airways (bronchi) during his strenuous efforts to breathe," Van Norman wrote in a report.
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The new expert also wrote Grant suffered "flash pulmonary edema" after the first drug was administered.
Other experts for the inmates have described flash pulmonary edema as the rapid filling of the lungs with blood and other fluids. One said it leads to "intolerable sensations and terror."
National Public Radio reported last year that experts likened the sensations from pulmonary edema to waterboarding. NPR looked at more than 200 autopsies of inmates executed by lethal injection. The analysis found evidence of pulmonary edema was noted 84% of the time.
Grant's autopsy specifically noted evidence of pulmonary edema and congestion in the discussion about his heavy lungs.
The lungs weighed 1,390 grams, according to the autopsy. Normal adult lungs weigh between 350 and 400 grams, according to one expert.
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The judge already has heard testimony about John Grant's execution and concluded the inmate was unconscious before he vomited and struggled to breathe.
The judge heard the testimony during hearings on request for execution stays. He has refused to block any execution because of what happened to Grant.
The next execution is set to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Grant threw up after eating potato chips and drinking Pibb Xtra "in a hurried manner" just 45 minutes before the execution was to begin, according to evidence introduced at one hearing.
He was executed for murdering a prison kitchen worker in 1998. He was incarcerated at the time of the fatal stabbing for armed robbery.
Corrections Department Director Scott Crow has insisted Grant's execution was carried out without complication. He has called media accounts embellished.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma execution: Autopsy shows inmate John Grant breathed in vomit
