Oklahoma attorney general seeks to delay all executions after drug mix-up

Oklahoma's attorney general asked that all executions in the state be postponed indefinitely Thursday, a day after prison officials were forced to delay the execution of a convicted murderer at the last minute because of a lethal injection drug mix-up.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a conservative Republican who backs the death penalty, asked the state Court of Criminal Appeals to put off all scheduled executions, including two more slated for this month that had been given the go-ahead by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The state owes it to the people of Oklahoma to ensure that, on their behalf, it can properly and lawfully administer the sentence of death imposed by juries for the most heinous crimes," Pruitt said. "All Oklahomans need to know with certainty that the system is working as intended."

The dramatic request followed Wednesday's second effort in three weeks to execute Richard Glossip, 52, who has claimed his innocence in the 1997 murder of his boss, Barry Van Treese, at an Oklahoma City budget motel. Glossip was convicted of ordering a hit on Van Treese.

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Glossip was past his scheduled execution at 3 p.m. CT, and the Supreme Court had refused to block it, when Gov. Mary Fallin announced a delay until Nov. 6 because of a mix-up in the three-drug cocktail the state Department of Correction planned to use. The third drug, potassium acetate, was not part of the state's accepted protocol.

It was an ironic twist to the case, because Glossip and his two co-plaintiffs, Benjamin Cole and John Grant, had sought to block their executions based on the first drug in the cocktail -- the sedative midazolam, which appeared to fail three times last year to render prisoners unable to feel pain. They lost that case at the Supreme Court on June 29.

"We don’t know why the attorney general did what he did, but after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett (in 2014), the Department of Corrections said it would fix all of its problems with its lethal injection protocol," said Dale Baich, one of the lawyers who brought that case. "What happened yesterday shows us that the department has a long way to go before the public can have any confidence that executions will be carried out in a competent and constitutional manner in Oklahoma."

The latest snafu developed only at the time Glossip's execution was scheduled. Corrections officials opened a sealed box from the drugs' provider, whose name remains secret, and discovered that the heart-stopping drug was not the one that was expected.

"By the provider supplying us with potassium acetate, a legal ambiguity was created that needed to be cleared up before moving forward," Department of Corrections director Robert Patton said Thursday. The delay initially ordered by Fallin, he said, will allow "due diligence in finding the proper drugs to carry out executions moving forward."

The death penalty has been under pressure on many fronts, from a reduction in death sentences sought by prosecutors and issued by juries to a steady decline in executions carried out by a dwindling number of states. In recent months, however, problems with lethal injections have led the way — and the Supreme Court is paying attention.

On Wednesday, a federal court in Virginia ordered a temporary halt to Thursday's planned execution of serial killer Alfredo Prieto in order to examine the state's planned use of compounded pentobarbital obtained from Texas, the nation's leader in carrying out death sentences. A hearing Thursday revealed no reason for delay, and the execution was carried out at 9:17 p.m. ET at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarrat.

Three times in 2014, executions using midazolam in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma went awry when prisoners writhed and moaned during lethal injections. Oklahoma's most recent execution in January, and another in Florida, were the last to use that sedative.

In June, the justices ruled 5-4 that Oklahoma could resume executions with midazolam because it had not been proven inadequate to the task, and challengers did not have a ready alternative to carry out what remains a constitutional process. But the court's four more liberal justices dissented.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for all four justices, said the result "leaves petitioners exposed to what may well be the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake." And Justice Stephen Breyer, joined only by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said the death penalty itself may be unconstitutional.

"Rather than try to patch up the death penalty's legal wounds one at a time, I would ask for full briefing on a more basic question: whether the death penalty violates the Constitution," Breyer said.

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