Lawyers for Texas death row inmate want execution delayed

Attorneys for a Texas death row inmate have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking to delay his execution following a bungled execution in Oklahoma.

Lawyers for Robert Campbell, who was convicted in the 1991 rape and slaying of a Houston woman, said Tuesday that Texas prison officials must reveal the source of the sedative pentobarbital to be used in Campbell's execution scheduled for May 13. Otherwise his punishment could be "as horrific as" Oklahoma's attempt to execute Clayton Lockett last week.

Lockett's execution went awry when an intravenous line of lethal drugs became dislodged — a failure that was not noticed for 21 minutes despite the man's evident discomfort. Lockett died of an apparent heart attack. The events even prompted the White House to address the issue, with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney saying it "fell short" of human standards.

An appeal similar to Campbell’s failed last month when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a demand from Texas inmate Tommy Lynn Sells, who wanted the state to release information about where it gets the same lethal injection drug.

Meanwhile, attorneys for Charles Warner, an Oklahoma inmate who was scheduled to be put to death the same night as Lockett, asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday to grant a delay for at least six months pending a review into what went wrong last week.

Warner was scheduled to die last week two hours after Lockett, but Gov. Mary Fallin issued a two-week delay pending a thorough inquiry into Lockett's execution.

Warner's attorney, Susanna Gattoni, said her client is not pursuing an appeal of his death sentence or criminal conviction.

"That's been decided long ago," Gattoni said, "but we are still looking at options with respect to a way to bring about some process that can ensure that if the death penalty continues to be conducted here in the state of Oklahoma, that it's done so in a manner that doesn't violate the state and federal constitution.

"And I would think everyone in the state of Oklahoma would want that."

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press