Oklahoma AG Agrees to Stay Executions Until 2016

Oklahoma's attorney general has agreed to not request execution dates until 2016 as his office investigates why the state used the wrong drug to execute an inmate in January.

In a joint court filing Friday, the attorney general's office and attorneys representing death row inmates asked a federal judge to suspend proceedings in an ongoing case challenging the lethal injection law, saying the lawsuit should be put on hold as Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office conducts an investigation.

Pruitt's office is investigating two incidents involving the drug potassium acetate, which is not part of Oklahoma's execution protocol. In one instance, Gov. Mary Fallin granted a last-minute stay for inmate Richard Glossip on Sept. 30 after prison officials said they received potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride, which is used as the final drug in the lethal injection series.

A week after that, a newly released autopsy report showed that Oklahoma used potassium acetate when it executed Charles Warner in January, contradicting what the state publicly said it had used in the lethal injection. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has issued indefinite stays for Glossip and two other inmates who had been set for execution this year.

Friday's court filing said Pruitt won't request any execution dates until at least 150 days after the investigation is complete, the results are made public and his office receives notice that the prisons department can comply with the execution protocol.

A federal judge still needs to sign off on the request.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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