35-Minute Delay in Execution of Inmate Who Said His Lawyer Wanted Him Dead
An inmate who claimed his lawyer said he deserved to die waited for 35 minutes yesterday while his executioners struggled to find a vein for his lethal injection.
A vein was finally found and Curtis Osborne died 14 minutes later for killing two people in a dispute over $400, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. He had no final words and refused a last meal of a cheeseburger. The U.S. Supreme Court had refused a final appeal.
A recent op-ed by former FBI director William S. Sessions said Osborne’s defense had been “woefully inadequate.” He also referred to allegations that Osborne’s lawyer, when speaking to another client, used a racial epithet to refer to Osborne and said he deserved to die.
Former President Jimmy Carter and former Attorney General Griffin Bell both had urged that Osborne’s sentence be commuted to life in prison, the Associated Press reports.
