execution drugs due to a European Union ban on the export of the necessary drugs. 46 This has led to the use of new experimental drugs such as in the Oklahoma case of Clayton Locket, who died of a heart attack and in severe pain 43 minutes after the execution began. 47 As a result there is currently a moratorium in the state until a new drug supply is found. 48 As such, the use of capital punishment is conditional upon it appearing to be a smooth a painless procedure, leading to an Appeals Court Judge stating that Americans must either accept the cruel nature of the death penalty or abandon it. 49 Opposition has also begun to emerge over the cost of the death penalty, with each execution in California costing $308 million, considerably more than life imprisonment. 50 This has led to many conservatives such as David J. Burge a senior member of the Georgia Republican Party viewing it as an expensive and intrusive government program contrary to 46 Ed Pilkington , ‘European Boycott of Death Penalty Drugs Lowers Rate of US Executions’ , The Guardian, 6 October 2014 <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/19/death-penalty- boycott-drugs-execution-new-low> [accessed 24 April 2016]. 47 Katie Fretland, ‘Scene at Botched Oklahoma Execution of Clayton Lockett Was “a Bloody Mess” ’, The Guardian, 15 December 2014 <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/13/botched- oklahoma-execution-clayton-lockett-bloody-mess> [accessed 24 April 2016]. 48 Amanda Sakuma , ‘Oklahoma Won’t Be Executing Death Row Inmates Anytime Soon ’ (msnbc.com, 2015) <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/oklahoma-wont-be-executing- death-row-inmates-anytime-soon> [accessed 24 April 2016]. 49 David Von Drehle, ‘ The Death of the Death Penalty’ . 50 Ed Pilkington, ‘Death Penalty Costs California More than $300m per Execution’ , The Guardian , 15 January 2016 <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/20/california-death- penalty-execution-costs> [accessed 24 April 2016].
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