{"id":32408,"date":"2020-02-14T14:40:17","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T20:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=32408"},"modified":"2020-02-14T14:40:17","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T20:40:17","slug":"state-to-resume-lethal-injections-after-finding-fresh-drug-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2020\/02\/14\/state-to-resume-lethal-injections-after-finding-fresh-drug-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"State to resume lethal injections after finding fresh drug supply"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last executions in Oklahoma were embarrassing failures.<\/p>

Before he died, Clayton Lockett writhed and moaned on his gurney<\/a>. Charles Warner said his body was \u201con fire.\u201d<\/a> Richard Glossip\u2019s execution had to be called off at the last minute.<\/p>

The state weathered national scorn over Lockett\u2019s death. It faced even more criticism after it was discovered Richard Glossip nearly received the wrong drug combination, and the wrong combination was\u00a0<\/em>given to Charles Warner.<\/p>

Facing a public relations nightmare, a dearth of lethal injection drugs and a lawsuit filed by death row prisoners, former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt agreed to postpone executions indefinitely in 2015.<\/a><\/p>

For about five years, state officials couldn\u2019t find a supplier for the right drugs. Now, current Attorney General Mike Hunter says the state has found their new supply, and they\u2019re ready to resume executions.<\/p>\n

No more mistakes<\/h3>

On Thursday, Gov. Kevin Stitt, Attorney General Mike Hunter and Department of Corrections Director Scott Crow said the state won\u2019t be repeating its past execution blunders.<\/p>

Hunter says state employees have a new set of rules to follow during executions.<\/p>

\u201cAny issues with these drugs have always been connected with human error,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>

Hunter\u2019s statement is controversial.\u00a0 One of the drugs used in Oklahoma executions is Midazolam. People around the country are questioning whether using the drug<\/a> causes prisoners in death chambers to feel intense pain, even drowning sensations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney unimpressed<\/h3>

The state\u2019s reassurances over the new rules aren\u2019t convincing attorney Dale Baich who has multiple clients on Oklahoma\u2019s death row.<\/p>

Baich says there\u2019s a culture of carelessness surrounding executions in Oklahoma.<\/p>

\u201cIn the next few days, we will advise the federal court and continue with the ongoing litigation challenging the constitutionality of Oklahoma\u2019s protocol,\u201d Baich said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

What happened to the nitrogen?<\/h3>

In 2018, Hunter and former corrections chief Joe Allbaugh said they couldn\u2019t find the drugs they needed for lethal injections. So, they began creating a new plan to use nitrogen gas to execute prisoners<\/a>.<\/p>

For nearly two years, the attorney general\u2019s office and the Department of Corrections said they were working on new rules for delivering the gas. It\u2019s unclear how much progress they made<\/a>. The state kept details on the new method largely secret.<\/p>

Now, Hunter says because they\u2019ve found a new drug supply there\u2019s no need to focus on nitrogen. Still, he says the state will continue developing a nitrogen gas protocol as a fall back, just in case lethal injections can\u2019t be carried out in the future.<\/p>

\u201cThe 2015 law allowing the state to develop a method for nitrogen hypoxia specifically states that death sentences shall be carried out by nitrogen hypoxia only if the drugs for lethal injection are unavailable,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>

Hunter and current Department of Corrections Director Scott Crow wouldn\u2019t identify the state\u2019s new drug source. They also wouldn\u2019t say how many executions they can carry out with their new supply.<\/p>\n

Next execution date?<\/h3>

It\u2019s unclear when the first executions will be scheduled.<\/p>

The 2015 court agreement to postpone executions stipulates that the state must first give\u00a0the new execution protocols to the\u00a0prisoners on death row who sued the state. One hundred and fifty days after that the state can ask to schedule an execution.<\/p>

There are 47 death row inmates in Oklahoma. Twenty-six have exhausted their appeals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma has found a new supply of lethal injection drugs and plans to resume executions. The state must wait 150 days after death row inmates’ defense teams review the new execution rules before it can schedule an execution. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":32409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[784,1208,1210,1211,803,1209],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32408"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32418,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32408\/revisions\/32418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}