Autopsy report for death row inmate John Marion Grant — who convulsed and vomited during his execution — reveals new information about his execution

• John Marion Grant was the first death row inmate to be executed in Oklahoma in over six years.
• He convulsed and vomited for 15 minutes during the lethal injection procedure.

An autopsy released this month states that Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol, used to put John Marion Grant to death, caused "heavy lungs" — a finding that comes after witnesses described Grant violently convulsing after the regimen was administered.

The February 7 report said that Grant's lungs weighed 1,390 grams, compared to the standard weight of approximately 1000 grams, and contained "edema, congestion, and mild emphysematous changes."

Dr. Mark Edgar, a pathologist, told KOKH in 2020 that "severe pulmonary edema" — as seein in those put to death using the state's the three-drug lethal injection procedure — would cause inmates to "be aware of sensations of drowning, asphyxia, and terror."

Grant's autopsy also revealed an intramuscular hemorrhage of the tongue. That's seen mostly "in cases with causes of death including fire fatality, drowning, and asphyxiation compared to those with other causes of death," according to a 2018 study in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

The autopsy added that there were remnants of vomit in Grant's nasal cavity and mouth.

Oklahoma executed Grant on October 28, 2021, with a three-drug lethal injection protocol that caused him to vomit and convulse for 15 minutes.

Dan Snyder, a KOKH anchor who attended Grant's execution, said that, "Almost immediately after the drug was administered, Grant began convulsing, so much so that his entire upper back repeatedly lifted off the gurney."

Medical Examiner Investigation by Colleen Welcher

Grant, 60 at the time of his death, was sentenced to die in 1999 after fatally stabbing prison cafeteria worker Gay Carter 16 times while serving a 130-year sentence for armed robberies.

Grant's execution was the first since Oklahoma lifted a moratorium on capital punishment prompted by the botched lethal injections of deceased death row inmates Clayton Lockett in 2014 and Charles Warner in 2015.

Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol is highly controversial; two inmates recently requested death by firing squad instead.

Critics of the three-drug lethal injection protocol question its constitutionality and say it causes "severe pain and needless suffering," according to NPR.

Twenty-six inmates are challenging the three-drug lethal injection protocol in a federal trial that begins February 28.

In the meantime, Oklahoma has pushed ahead with executions — including Donald Grant, unrelated to John Grant, who was put to death despite suffering from severe mental illness. Death row inmate Gilbert Postelle is next to be executed with a February 17 date.