What gas did Oklahoma decide to use for executions in 2015?
In May 2014, Oklahoma Director of Corrections, Robert Patton, recommended an indefinite hold on executions in the state after the botched execution of African-American Clayton Lockett. The prisoner had to be tasered to restrain him prior to the execution, and the lethal injection missed a vein in his groin, resulting in Lockett regaining consciousness, trying to get up, and to speak, before dying of a heart attack 43 minutes later, after the attempted execution had been called off. In 2015, the state approved nitrogen asphyxiation as a method of execution.