US executions resume, first since botched attempt in Okla. 7 weeks ago

ST. LOUIS — A Georgia inmate was executed Tuesday night in the nation’s first capital punishment since a botched execution in April raised new concerns about lethal injection.

Marcus Wellons, 59, received a lethal injection late Tuesday after last-minute appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court were denied. A corrections official said he was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. Eastern time. The execution seemed to go smoothly with no noticeable complications.

Wellons’ execution came about an hour before that of inmate John Winfield in Missouri, and a third execution is scheduled for Wednesday night in Florida.

Winfield was executed by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. and was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m. Central time, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety said. The U.S. Supreme Court had also refused late Tuesday to halt his execution, and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon denied clemency.

All three states refuse to say where they get their drugs, or if they are tested. Lawyers for two of the condemned inmates have challenged the secretive process used by some states to obtain lethal injection drugs from unidentified, loosely regulated compounding pharmacies.

Nine executions nationwide have been stayed or postponed since late April, when Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Clayton Lockett after noting that the lethal injection drugs weren’t being administered into his vein properly. Lockett’s punishment was halted and he died of a heart attack several minutes later.

“I think after Clayton Lockett’s execution everyone is going to be watching very closely,” Fordham University School of Law professor Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert, said of this week’s executions. “The scrutiny is going to be even closer.”

John Ruthell Henry’s execution is scheduled Wednesday night in Florida.