Swarna Shukla
Published On: October 28, 2021 at 11:30 IST
A Federal Appeals Court granted the stay of Execution for two Oklahoma inmates who were scheduled to receive lethal Injections.
Three-member panel of the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued stays for Death row inmates John Marion Grant and Julius Jones.
The Court ruled that US District Judge Stephen Friot mistook when he removed Grant, Jones and three other prisoners from a Lawsuit challenging the State’s lethal injection protocols as they did not designate any other method of Execution.
The Court demarcated that the prisoners did indentified alternative method in their complaint, even if they didn’t check a box containing specific methods they would use.
Dale Baich, an Attorney of some of the Death row inmates stated, “Today’s Order should prevent the State from carrying out Executions until the Federal District Court addresses the credible expert procedures.”
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Conner stated, “We are hopeful the Supreme Court will vacate the stay so that Justice can finally be served for the people of Oklahoma, including the families of the Victims of these horrific Crimes.”
Historically, Oklahoma has one of the Nation’s busiest Death chambers, however, a series of problematic lethal injections in 2014 and 2015 led to a De Facto Moratorium.
While the moratorium was in place, Oklahoma moved with plans to use Nitrogen gas to Execute prisoners, but ultimately scrapped that idea and last year announced that it planned to resume Executions using three-drug lethal protocol that was used during flawed Executions.
Those three drugs are Midazolam-a Sedative, Vecuronium Bromide- a paralytic and Potassium Chloride- which stops the Heart.
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