Royal assent of the Crown, standing on the sovereign's right, then read aloud the titles of the bills (in earlier times, the entire text of the bills). The Clerk of the Parliaments, standing on the sovereign's left, responded by stating the appropriate Norman French formula. A new device for granting assent was created during the reign of King Henry VIII. In 1542, Henry sought to execute his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, whom he accused of committing adultery; the execution was to be authorised not after a trial but by a bill of attainder, to which he would have to personally assent after
Execution of Clayton Lockett the action "deeply disturbing" and ordered attorney general Eric Holder to review the policy on executions. Obama cited uneven application of the death penalty in the United States, including racial bias (Lockett was African-American) and cases in which murder convictions were later overturned, as grounds for further study of the issue. Media coverage portrayed the execution as "botched", "The Telegraph" calling it "barbarism" and "inappropriate in a civilized society", noting "the idea of actually spectating while the victim is killed surely clashes with basic humanity." The executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, Richard Dieter, said the attempted execution