Two death row inmates who sued the state Department of Corrections over the secrecy surrounding its execution protocol are scheduled to die this week in Oklahoma's first double execution since 1937.
Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, set to die Tuesday, sued the state of Oklahoma in February. After a lengthy battle that took the case to four different courts, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Oklahoma County District Court had erred in siding with the inmates.
Warner, who is 46, was convicted of the 1997 rape and murder of 11-month-old Adrianna Walker, the daughter of his roommate.
Lockett, who is 38, was convicted of shooting 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman with a sawed-off shotgun and watching as two accomplices buried her alive in rural Kay County in 1999.
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