Oklahoma suspends executions pending completion of investigation News
Oklahoma suspends executions pending completion of investigation

[JURIST] Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt [official website] agreed Friday to suspend all executions [stipulation, PDF; press release] until his office has completed an investigation into the use of a wrong lethal injection drug during an execution last January. Pruitt they he will not seek to fulfill any death sentences until the investigation on how the state received the wrong drugs is concluded and has even asked a judge to delay a pending lawsuit by death row inmate Richard Glossip until after the investigation. The judge agreed to delay the lawsuit and continue to stay executions until the conclusion of Pruitt’s investigation.

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.

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