Oklahoma High Court Clears Way For Two
Inmates' Executions
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[April 24, 2014]
By Heide Brandes
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) — The Oklahoma
Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution on Wednesday for two murderers,
put in place due to concerns over secrecy surrounding lethal injection
drugs, clearing the way for them to be put to death next week.
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The court said their records indicate that the inmates have been
provided with the identity and dosages of the drugs for the lethal
injections and there were no pending secrecy concerns that would
merit a further stay.
"The stay of execution entered by this Court on April 21, 2014, is
hereby dissolved," it said.
The decision came a few hours after a member of the House of
Representatives said he would start proceedings that could have led
to impeachment proceedings in the state's legislature for court
members.
The two inmates, Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, had been
scheduled to be executed in March but had the death sentences put on
hold after lower courts ruled that the state needed to provide more
information on the drugs.
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"It's not even known whether the lethal injection drugs to be used
were obtained legally, and nothing is known about their source,
purity, or efficacy, among other questions," said Seth Day, an
attorney for Lockett and Warner.
Lockett was sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of 19-year-old
Stephanie Nieman. Warner was convicted of the 1997 rape and murder
of 11-month-old Adriana Waller.
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Several states have been scrambling to find new suppliers and
chemical combinations after drug makers, mostly in Europe, imposed
sales bans because they objected to having medications made for
other purposes being used in lethal injections.
Attorneys for death row inmates have argued that the drugs used in
Oklahoma and other states could cause unnecessarily painful deaths,
which would amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of
the U.S. Constitution
(Editing by Ian Simpson; editing by Michael Perry)
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