Oklahoma court sets execution date for death row inmate

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set execution dates Wednesday for three inmates involved in the legal challenge regarding the state’s lethal injection protocol.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set a September 16 execution date for Richard Glossip, who was sentenced to death for ordering the murder of his boss, a motel owner.

The 5-4 ruling by the high court gave the state the green light to continue using a three-drug cocktail that includes the sedative midazolam, which death-penalty opponents say does not protect inmates from the pain of the other two drugs.

However, the USA Supreme Court upheld the use of a controversial drug for lethal injection in executions.

The drug is also used in Ohio and Arizona, which do not have any executions now planned for the rest of the year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which monitors US capital punishment.

The execution had been on hold since January.

Oklahoma now has 49 inmates on death row. A co-defendant confessed to beating Van Treese, but said he did so at Glossip’s direction.

Grant was convicted of killing a fellow prison kitchen worker by stabbing her 16 times. “With the setting of execution dates, these families now have certainty that justice will finally be served for their loved ones”. A clemency hearing for Cole has not been set.

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