Oklahoma agrees to hold off executions until at least 2016

The agreement led Pruitt’s office initially to claim in a statement, “Attorney General Scott Pruitt announced Friday attorneys representing death-row inmates in Glossip v. Gross have agreed to dismiss their federal lawsuit challenging the state’s execution protocol”.

It’s an eye-popping blunder considering that, one week before details of Warner’s execution came to light, Oklahoma officials were caught scrambling hours before a separate execution due to the exact same drug mix-up.

Once the state does all of that, the inmates will have 14 days to reopen the litigation.

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.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has already ordered indefinite stays of execution for the death row inmates set to be executed this year.

Glossip’s scheduled execution was halted by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin on September 30 when it was discovered that the state had been provided with a drug for use in Glossip’s execution that was not a part of the approved execution procedures.

A week after that, further questions were raised when it was revealed that the state actually had used the incorrect drug – potassium acetate in place of the authorized potassium chloride – in the January execution of Charles Warner. Until that investigation is complete, Mr. Pruitt is trying to stay all executions performed by the state. Warner had originally been scheduled for execution in April 2014 – the same night as Clayton Lockett, who writhed on the gurney, moaned and pulled up from his restraints before dying 43 minutes after his initial injection. Under the agreement filed Friday, no future execution can be scheduled until the investigation is complete, the results are made public and there is a 150-day – or roughly five-month – waiting period. According to the AP, vials containing potassium acetate were used to fill syringes labeled potassium chloride-which is, well, pretty damn disturbing.

The next inmate scheduled to die was Glossip, who came within hours of his lethal injections before prison officials informed the governor that they had received potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride from a pharmacist, whose identity is shielded by state law.

But experts on pharmaceuticals and chemistry told the AP that differences between the two forms could be relevant. Potassium chloride is likely to be absorbed by the body more quickly and the quantities needed may differ. Death row inmates filed a lawsuit alleging the state’s secrecy law violates a contract in an earlier settlement with prisoners that required information about execution drugs be released to inmates.