The botched execution of convicted killer Clayton Lockett is being investigated by the Oklahoma governor's office, but three-fifths of panelists on Fox News Channel's
"The Five" expressed no sympathy for Lockett's suffering.
"What they failed to mention is that Lockett died a way more humane death than his victim did," noted former death-penalty prosecutor Kimberly Guilfoyle, pointing out that Lockett shot 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman and watched as two accomplices buried her alive.
Neiman and a friend had interrupted a robbery at a home when Lockett shot her in 1999.
"It wasn't perhaps the most humane way to die, but shouldn't we care also about her?" Guilfoyle asked.
Juan Williams, the lone liberal on the panel, agreed that Lockett deserved to die, but said the botched execution was "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Constitution.
There's a line between society carrying out executions and "these murderous crazy bastards like that guy," Williams said.
Lockett, 38, had been declared unconscious 10 minutes after the first of three drugs in the state's new lethal injection combination was administered Tuesday evening. Three minutes later, he began breathing heavily, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head. Officials later blamed a ruptured vein for the problems with the execution.
Guilfoyle said that the botched execution wasn't intentional, though what Lockett did was intentional.
"Former death-penalty prosecutor," she said, then pointed to her eye. "No tear."
Co-host Eric Bolling said he has "no sympathy" for Lockett, adding, "I'm sorry it took you 43 minutes [to die.] I kind of wish it had taken you 43 years, suffering with a heart attack."
In fact, Bolling said, in cases where there is absolutely no doubt of guilt, "I think they can execute someone in the way that he or she executed their victim."
Co-host Dana Perino was more sympathetic, saying that it is important to get executions right and not cause suffering.
But Greg Gutfeld called it a case where a legal injustice coincided with a moral justice.
"In a rare situation, the killer suffered like his victim, and it's a mistake I can live with," Gutfeld said. "One morning show said the execution went horribly wrong. I question the word 'horribly.'"
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin named a member of her Cabinet on Wednesday to lead a review of how the state conducts executions. She also called of the execution of Charles Warner, who had been scheduled to die two hours after Lockett. That stay is in place until May 13, and Fallin said Warner's execution will be further delayed if the independent review is not complete by then.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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