OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma’s highest criminal court on Wednesday set execution dates for three death row inmates who challenged the use of a drug that will be used in their lethal injections.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set execution dates of Sept. 16 for 52-year-old Richard Eugene Glossip, Oct. 7 for 50-year-old Benjamin Robert Cole, and Oct. 28 for 54-year-old John Marion Grant.
The three inmates had argued that the state’s planned use of the sedative midazolam risked subjecting them to pain and suffering because it doesn’t properly render a person unconscious. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month in a 5-4 decision that the drug can be used in executions without violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Terri Watkins, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, said Wednesday that the state has access to the drugs needed to carry out all three executions and is prepared to proceed.
An attorney for the inmates maintained in a statement Wednesday that scientific information about midazolam and its use in previous problematic executions shows that it can’t maintain anesthesia throughout the execution procedure.