Associated Press reports, "Okla. lawyers: Drugs not available for execution," by Bailey Elise McBride. It's via the San Francisco Chronicle.
Oklahoma does not have all of the lethal drugs necessary to carry out an execution set for this week, the state attorney general said Monday, and the prisons agency says a quirk in the law prevents the state from switching to electrocution or firing squad.
Despite the drug shortage, lawyers for the state are fighting an attempt by two inmates to delay their executions as the condemned men seek more information about Oklahoma's execution procedures.
Assistant Attorney General Seth Branham says the Oklahoma Department of Corrections is attempting to obtain suitable execution drugs.
"This has been nothing short of a Herculean effort, undertaken with the sole objective of carrying out ODOC's duty under Oklahoma law to conduct Appellants' executions," Branham wrote in a brief to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals filed Monday. "Sadly, this effort has (so far) been unsuccessful."
The attorney general's office said in the briefs that a deal to obtain pentobarbital and vecuronium bromide from a pharmacy had fallen through. It did not identify the pharmacy.
"AG brief says Oklahoma does not have drugs needed for Thursday execution" is the Oklahoman report by Graham Lee Brewer.
The brief describes how the state Corrections Department had “a commitment from a pharmacy to supply the drugs,” but by Friday that commitment had fallen through. This contradicts a statement by state Corrections Department spokesmen Jerry Massie to The Oklahoman in February. Massie said at the time that Oklahoma had 10 doses of pentobarbital.
Massie declined to comment Monday, saying the department would not discuss any ongoing legal matters.
"State lacks drugs to carry out Thursday execution, records show is by Cary Aspinwall for the Tulsa World.
Officials have been told that pentobarbital remains in short supply and vecuronium bromide is now “difficult, if not impossible, even for hospitals and medical professionals to obtain.”
Both Warner and Lockett have challenged the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s attempts to conceal the source of its execution drugs and have asked the court to stay their executions.
Attorneys for both inmates and the Attorney General’s Office filed briefs in support of their case on Monday morning.
NBC News reports, "Oklahoma Can't Find Drugs for Planned Executions," by Tracy Connor.
The state said it was considering a last-minute change to its protocol, but conceded that would most likely trigger another round of legal objections.
Defense lawyer Madeline Cohen noted that the state made no mention of what drugs it might use or whether they have ever been used in any executions.
Earlier coverage of Oklahoma lethal injection issues begins at the link.
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