The first man executed in Oklahoma following a nearly seven-year hiatus inhaled his own vomit during his October killing at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, according to an autopsy report.
John Grant's autopsy report, signed on Oct. 29, 2021, by Tulsa medical examiner Dr. Jeremy Shelton one day after Grant's execution, was obtained and published by the Death Penalty Information Center.
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections claimed at the time of the execution that the killing was carried out "without complication," despite media eyewitness accounts that Grant convulsed and vomited on himself many times during the execution. DOC Director Scott Crow claimed media accounts were "embellished."
The autopsy report showed evidence of pulmonary edema, which a 2020 NPR report found could be evidence of a slow, painful death, experienced similar to the sensation of the torture method known as waterboarding.
Grant was sentenced to death in 2000 for the 1998 murder of prison worker Gay Carter.
Grant's execution was the first since a series of botched executions in 2014 and 2015, after which Oklahoma suspended executions.
A federal judge is scheduled to consider the constitutionality of the drug cocktail used in the state's execution process later this month.
Oklahoma is scheduled to kill 35-year-old convicted murderer Gilbert Postelle Thursday morning using the same drugs.
