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Attorney General Scott Pruitt Advises Developing Nitrogen Hypoxia Execution Protocol

The execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
The execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester

Attorney General Scott Pruitt says Oklahoma should consider adopting execution protocols using nitrogen gas in addition to lethal injection methods. Executions are currently on hold in the state while officials develop new procedures after executions went awry in 2014 and 2015.

Pruitt told The Tulsa World’s Barbara Hoberock he thinks the Oklahoma Department of Corrections should work on alternatives to lethal injection methods:

Pruitt said states across the nation, including Oklahoma, have found it difficult to obtain drugs to administer lethal injections because manufacturers put restrictions on the use of the drugs. “It will be a continuing problem,” he said. As a result, the state should develop a protocol for the use of nitrogen gas, Pruitt said.

The 2015 Legislature approved a measure allowing nitrogen gas to be used in executions after Clayton Lockett writhed and moaned on the gurney in April 2014. Oklahoma is the first state to adopt the use of nitrogen hypoxia for death penalty procedures, and Pruitt said he expects legal challenges.

“It is authorized by statute,” he said, but “it will be challenged. There will be an Eighth Amendment challenge.” The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. “We will litigate that,” he said. “The policymakers have spoken. The policymakers have established that as a matter of law. It is an alternative.

During an interim study on the issue, state Rep. Mike Christian, R-Oklahoma City, said nitrogen gas could be administered through a mask placed over the condemned inmate’s head.

In the meantime, the Board of Corrections has yet to approve new lethal injection protocols. Pruitt has requested a five-month delay after the board approves new protocols to ensure executions can be carried out without issue. The earliest an execution could take place in Oklahoma is now early 2017, more than two years after the state used the wrong drug to kill Charles Warner.

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