A botched lethal injection in Oklahoma has brought the attention of the world crashing down upon the U.S. legal system, and has created questions regarding the ethical need for capital punishment in the United States.

There is no certainty about what went wrong last Tuesday during the execution of convicted murderer and rapist Clayton Lockett, but eyewitnesses described him as convulsing and writhing after he was issued the lethal injection. The scene was reportedly so sickening that prison officials closed off the viewing chamber in order to keep witnesses from seeing more of the gruesome sight. 

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One thing is certain: it was the state's first time using a new three-drug mix for an execution and it is likely that this combination was precisely what caused Clayton Lockett to die in excruciating pain.

Outrage was elicited around the globe regarding the event, but China is one country which has remained silent on this score - most likely because China itself is the world's death penalty leader with the most common method of execution reportedly being death by firing squad.

While other countries spoke up to question the United States' continued use of barbaric execution methods, China chose to not even cover the incident in local English and state newspapers.

With thirty-two states in the U.S. making use of the death penalty, angry activists have compared execution methods and rates in the country as no different from those applied in countries such as Iran.

According to former Supreme Court law clerk, Richard W. Garnett, this case "will not only cause officials in that state to review carefully their execution procedures and methods, it will almost certainly prompt many Americans across the country to rethink the wisdom, and the morality, of capital punishment."