McALESTER, Okla. (AP) – In its first lethal injection since a botched one last spring, Oklahoma executed a convicted killer with a three-drug method also used by Florida for a punishment the same night.
In an execution Thursday that lasted 18 minutes, Oklahoma inmate Charles Frederick Warner showed no physical signs of distress after the lethal drugs were administered, although he did say, “My body is on fire.” He was declared dead at 7:28 p.m. CST.
Warner, 47, was put to death for killing an infant in 1997. He was originally scheduled to be executed in April on the same night as Clayton Lockett, who began writhing on the gurney, moaning and trying to lift his head after he’d been declared unconscious. That prompted state officials to impose a moratorium on executions in Oklahoma until an investigation was completed into what went wrong.
Wearing gray prison scrubs and covered with a sheet up to his waist, Warner, bald and clean shaven, was strapped to a gurney with intravenous lines in both arms.
When asked before the execution began if he had any final words, Warner responded: “Before I give my final statement, I’ll tell you they poked me five times. It hurt. It feels like acid.”