Oklahoma has a long and horrendous history when it comes to lethal injections of its death row inmates. The latest incident is extraordinarily alarming. 

On Thursday, as John Marion Grant, 60, was strapped to an execution gurney and the first dose of the sedative midazolam began to course through his veins, his body started to convulse, and then he began to vomit. Members of the execution team cleaned him up, but according to Associated Press, before raising the curtain for witnesses to view the execution, Grant could be heard yelling, profanities, and, “Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” 

AP reporter Sean Murphy observed Grant’s execution at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Murphy says Grant’s body jerked nearly two dozen times before he began to throw up.

Grant was declared unconscious about 15 minutes after the first drug was delivered, and died about six minutes later at 4:21 PM. 

Robert Dunham, executive director of the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center, told AP that Grant’s reaction to the drugs was rare. “I’ve never heard of or seen that.” He described it as “notable and unusual.”

Grant was the first person to be executed since Oklahoma’s five-year moratorium on executions after several botched lethal injections in 2014 and 2015. In one case, an inmate was executed with an unapproved drug and in another case, just prior to an inmate being led into the death chamber, prison officials realized they were about to use the same drug for his execution. 

Grant was convicted of murdering prison guard Gay Carter on Nov. 13, 1998, when he stabbed her 16 times with a handmade knife. Grant was originally serving sentences for robbery and illegal firearm charges. 

On Tuesday, Oklahoma announced it would reinstitute the death sentence after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, lifted stays of execution applying to Grant and another death row inmate, Julius Jones, by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The Department of Corrections has addressed concerns regarding carrying out the death penalty and is prepared to follow the will of the people of Oklahoma, as expressed in state statute, and the orders of the courts by carrying out the execution of inmates sentenced to death by a jury of their peers,” Director Scott Crow said in a statement.

A Pew research study found that even though most Americans understand that the death penalty is unfair and that it likely does not deter crime, 60% of adults in the U.S. are in favor of the death penalty in cases of murder. 

According to Equal Justice Initiative, “of the 13 people executed by the Trump administration, nine were people of color. More than half of the 50 people currently under a federal death sentence are people of color: 21 (42%) are Black and 7 (14%) are Latino.”

Oklahoma was the first jurisdiction globally to institute lethal injection as a method of execution, and it has the third-largest number of convicts in the U.S., following Texas and Virginia. 

“Today, the Department of Corrections carried out the law of the State of Oklahoma and delivered justice to Gay Carter’s family,” Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said. 

Dunham blasted Grant’s execution and Oklahoma’s death row in an official statement. 

“Oklahoma had botched its last three execution attempts before its six-year execution pause, but apparently learned nothing from that experience. But to say this is another botched Oklahoma execution would be inadequate. Oklahoma knew full well that this was well within the realm of possible outcomes in a midazolam execution. It didn’t care … and the Supreme Court apparently didn’t either,” Dunham wrote. 

“Executions like this provide death-penalty opponents with further evidence that states who are in a rush to kill simply cannot be trusted with the death penalty. And the Supreme Court’s appalling intervention to ensure the execution would occur without meaningful judicial review further undermines the legitimacy of the Court and any pretense that it is still a neutral arbiter of the law,” Dunham added.

Grant’s request for clemency was denied twice by the state’s Pardon and Parole Board, including a 2-3 vote this month. 

“John Grant took full responsibility for the murder of Gay Carter, and he spent his years on death row trying to understand and atone for his actions more than any other client I have worked with,” Grant’s attorney, Sarah Jernigan, said in a statement.

“However we must not forget Oklahoma’s hand in this tragic story. When John stole to feed and clothe himself and his siblings, Oklahoma labeled him a delinquent instead of a desperate and traumatized child left to fend for himself. John wasn’t even a teenager yet when Oklahoma sent him to the first of several state-run youth detention facilities,” she wrote.

“Oklahoma ultimately dumped John onto the streets with no skills and no support for the mental illness that was exacerbated by years of being both the victim of and witness to beatings, rapes, and extended periods of solitary confinement, amongst other abuses. When he committed a robbery at age seventeen, Oklahoma sent him to an adult prison, subjecting him to further victimization, as later documented in a class-action lawsuit.”

Grant’s execution was denounced by Rev. Paul S. Coakley, archbishop of Oklahoma City. 

“All human life is sacred. No matter how serious the crime committed, we do not forfeit the inherent dignity bestowed upon us by our Creator. There are other ways to administer just punishment without resorting to lethal measures,” Coakley wrote in part. 

Jones is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 18. He has a clemency hearing before the Pardon and Parole Board on Nov. 1.