US executions on hold over lethal drug secret
Oklahoma Supreme Court stays executions of two inmates who challenged the secrecy surrounding lethal injection drugs.
A sharply divided Oklahoma Supreme Court has put on hold the executions of two death row inmates who have challenged the secrecy surrounding the source of the state’s lethal injection drugs.
In a 5-4 decision, the court issued the stays one day before death row inmate Clayton Lockett was scheduled to be executed for the 1999 shooting death of 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman. The second inmate, Charles Warner, was convicted in the 1997 death of his roommate’s 11-month-old daughter and was scheduled to die on April 29.
The ruling halts the executions until the state Supreme Court can hold a hearing on the inmates’ lawsuit.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s office did not say whether it would appeal.
“The AG’s office is trying to determine the appropriate response to address these issues,” Pruitt said in an emailed statement.
A spokesman for the Department of Corrections, Jerry Massie, said the agency had not seen the order and was still preparing as if Lockett’s execution would be held on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court said it wanted to fast-track the case, but a hearing had not yet been scheduled.
Oklahoma changed its procedures on March 21 to allow five different potential drug combinations for executions.
The state informed lawyers for the inmates on April 1 that the men would be executed using a combination of midazolam, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride never before used in the state, but did not disclose the source of the drugs.
Executions have been conducted using the drug combination in Florida with lower doses.
States that have the death penalty have been scrambling for substitute drugs or new sources for drugs after major drugmakers, many based in Europe with longtime opposition to the death penalty, stopped selling to prisons and corrections departments.
Lawyers for Lockett and Nieman said they were pleased with Monday’s ruling.
“The Oklahoma Supreme Court will be able to fully adjudicate the serious constitutional issues about the extreme secrecy surrounding lethal injection procedures in our state,” lawyers Susanna Gattoni and Seth Day said in a statement.