Monday morning Attorney General Scott Pruitt asked for stays of execution for three Oklahoma death row inmates until either the U.S. Supreme Court reaches a decision in the state’s use of the controversial drug midazolam, or the Oklahoma Department of Corrections finds another drug to use in the lethal injection procedures.
“In light of the Supreme Court’s grant of appellants’ petition for writ of certiorari, the State requests that the executions of [Richard] Glossip, [John] Grant and [Benjamin] Cole be stayed until final disposition in Oklahoma’s favor of the appeal in No. 14-7955, "Glossip v. Gross"; or, alternatively, until ODOC has in its possession a viable alternative to midazolam for use in its executions,” the application for the stays says.
The high court announced Friday it would review current lethal injection protocols used across the country, stepping in after Oklahoma executed a man using a controversial drug combination nearly two weeks ago.
“It is important that we act in order to best serve the interests of the victims of these horrific crimes and the State’s obligation to ensure justice in each and every case.” Pruitt said in an email. “The families of the victims in these three cases have waited a combined 48 years for the sentences of these heinous crimes to be carried out. Two federal courts have previously held the current protocol as constitutional, and we believe the United States Supreme Court will find the same. We thus support stays until a decision in the State’s favor is final or until viable alternative drugs can be obtained.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma issued a statement saying even though they disagree with Pruitt about much of the state's lethal injection protocol, they supported Monday's decision.
"His request acknowledges that Oklahoma’s controversial lethal injection protocol raises serious constitutional questions, and that we cannot continue to use Oklahomans as specimens for human experimentation now that the United States Supreme Court has stepped in to review our practices," ACLU Executive Director Ryan Kiesel said in a statement. "We only wish this prudent request for a stay was made prior to the two executions conducted by the state using the same methods currently under review by the Supreme Court."
Last April, several death row inmates sued the state of Oklahoma, claiming its drug combination was experimental, and therefore unconstitutional. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed the states use of the drugs.
While the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 not to stay the execution of Charles Warner on January 15, the justices will now review the use of midazolam, which Oklahoma has used in its past executions. Its use has been widely criticized following the April 29 execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhed and moaned on the gurney.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent she had serious concerns about whether midazolam is effective in inducing a deep, comalike state of unconciousness and reducing unnecessary pain and suffering.
Read the dissent by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports the Supreme Court upheld most states’ three-drug protocol used in lethal injections to carry out the death penalty.
The questions presented in the cases stem from the fact that, since then, pharmaceutical-makers no longer are willing to provide the drugs traditionally used as sedatives in lethal injection. So the states have substituted various doses of the sedative midazolam, resulting in some notable botched executions. The state of Oklahoma says it has fixed its dosages and procedures, but death row opponents contend that the drugs being used are untested, experimental drug combinations that can cause great suffering, in violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Glossip had been scheduled to be executed January 29. The Supreme Court will most likely hear the case in April.
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