Oklahoma Attorney General requests execution schedule for 25 death row inmates

Oklahoma, as detailed in this official accounting, has 42 men and one woman on their death row.  And, as reported in this CNN article, the state's Attorney General has now asked for execution dates for more than half of them.  The headline of the CNN piece is "Oklahoma AG requests execution schedule be set for 25 inmates following ruling on lethal injection protocol," and here are excerpts:

Four days after a federal court ruled against death row inmates arguing Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol is cruel and unusual, the state's attorney general asked for more than two dozen executions to be scheduled.

Executions in Oklahoma are scheduled by the state Court of Criminal Appeals.  The motion from Attorney General John O'Connor requests executions take place every four weeks, starting no earlier than late August in order to give the Department of Corrections time to prepare.

Federal judge Stephen P. Friot ruled Monday in a long-running case the state's lethal execution drug combination does not violate the Eighth Amendment guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.  Attorney Jennifer Moreno told CNN on Tuesday the plaintiffs are considering an appeal, saying the state's protocol "creates an unacceptable risk that prisoners will experience severe pain and suffering."

The attorney general is asking for 25 prisoners to be scheduled for execution.  One prisoner, Wade Greely Lay, is scheduled to have a jury trial next May to determine whether he is competent to be executed, and O'Connor says his execution date should be delayed until after the trial is concluded.

If the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals schedules execution dates along the lines requested by the state AG, there could be executions scheduled in the Sooner State every single month from August 2022 through August 2024. 

Prior recent related post:

• Oklahoma death row inmates lose their Eighth Amendment claims against state's lethal injection protocol