[JURIST] The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals [official website] on Friday unanimously granted a request [petition, PDF] from Attorney General Scott Pruitt [official website] to halt all of the state’s scheduled executions to allow for an investigation [press release] into why the prison received incorrect lethal injection drugs. Addressing the issue, Pruitt said:

The state owes it to the people of Oklahoma to ensure that, on their behalf, it can properly and lawfully administer the sentence of death imposed by juries for the most heinous crimes. Not until shortly before the scheduled execution did the Department of Corrections notify my office that it did not obtain the necessary drugs to carry out the execution in accordance with the protocol.

The court issued indefinite stays of execution for Richard Glossip, Benjamin Cole and John Grant, all previously scheduled to die in October.

Use of the death penalty [JURIST news archive] has been a controversial issue throughout the US and internationally. Oklahoma became the epicenter [JURIST report] of the lethal injection drug debate last year after the death of Clayton Lockett, a death row inmate who died of an apparent heart attack minutes after doctors called off a failed attempt to execute him.. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals [official website] granted a stay of execution [JURIST report] earlier in September for Glossip, hours before he was scheduled for lethal injection. Glossip has always maintained his innocence and requested the emergency stay as well as a motion for an evidentiary hearing due to alleged new evidence. In May Nebraska lawmakers overrode [JURIST report] Governor Pete Ricketts’ veto on repealing the death penalty. In April the Tennessee Supreme Court postponed the execution [JURIST report] of four inmates on death row while it determines whether current protocols are constitutional, effectively halting all executions in the state.