Oklahoma court stops 3 pending executions after drug glitch

Oklahoma has ordered an indefinite stay of execution for Richard Glossip and two other death row inmates.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin answers questions Thursday, October 1, 2015, from reporters outside the Blue Room at the state Capitol.

“Not until shortly before the scheduled execution did the Department of Corrections notify my office that it did not obtain the necessary drugs to carry out the execution in accordance with the protocol”, Pruitt said in a statement.

Lawyers for convicted serial killer say a federal court judge erred in not granting a last-minute delay of the execution of their client and are asking an appeals court to overturn that decision. Johnson said she knew the pope would do something but she didn’t know what and “I think God had a hand in dictating how the timing would work out”. In the meantime, the attorney general has requested an indefinite stay of the executions for Richard Glossip, Benjamin Cole and John Marion Grant.

Richard Glossip was pacing back and forth in his death cell Wednesday afternoon wearing only his boxer shorts and waiting to hear whether the Supreme Court would step in and postpone his execution. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court was weighing Glossips plea for a hearing based on claims that his co-defendant had lied. In exchange, he is serving a life sentence in a medium-security state prison.

Glossip was just metres from the execution chamber when the mistake was realised. Instead, they were told of the stay, news that elicited smiles and temporary sighs of relief.

The U.S. Supreme Court had denied Glossip a stay, but a drug mix-up forced the governor to issue it. A few jurors who doubted Sneed’s trustworthiness relied on the questionable conclusion that Van Treese could have been saved if Glossip had alerted authorities that Sneed confessed to the killing earlier.

“Contact was immediately made to the provider, whose professional opinion was that potassium acetate is medically interchangeable with potassium chloride at the same quantity”, Patton said.

Both potassium chloride and potassium acetate have therapeutic uses, and are typically used to treat medical conditions arising out of low potassium levels. “Minutes before the execution is supposed to start, that’s when they realize they don’t have the right drugs?”

Oklahoma had been preparing to execute Glossip, 52, whom prosecutors said arranged for a handyman to kill their boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in January 1997 in Oklahoma City.

Sneed had been a key prosecution witness against Glossip but his attorneys had said they had an affidavit from another inmate who said Sneed admitted to setting Glossip up. Potassium chloride is the third drug used in executions and stops the inmate’s heart. His lawyers said no physical evidence tied Glossip to the crime.

The United States remains the only Western country to maintain the death penalty and has executed 22 people this year alone. An August. 11 letter from Assistant Attorney General John Hadden didn’t say whether the department physically possessed the drugs at the time.

Q. Why did DOC receive potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride?

He died about 45 minutes after the procedure began because of an accumulation of lethal injection chemicals that had built up in his tissue.

“That’s just insane!” Glossip could be heard saying on speaker.