Oklahoma Court Rejects Death-Row Inmates' Claims

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that two death row inmates are not entitled to know the source of the drugs that will be used to kill them, putting them back on track to be executed as early as next week.

In rejecting the inmates' claims late Wednesday, the court also lifted a stay of execution that it had granted earlier in the week in a case that placed Oklahoma's two highest courts at odds and prompted calls for impeaching justices on the Supreme Court.

The decision paves the way for death row inmates Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner to receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. A stay issued on Tuesday by Gov. Mary Fallin remains in place for Lockett, but only until April 29, the same day Warner is scheduled to die.

Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz has said the governor is still reviewing the court's ruling and has not made a decision on what she will do. Weintz has said it is possible both men could be executed on April 29.

Telephone message left late Wednesday with attorneys for Warner and Lockett were not immediately returned.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said the court's decision affirmed a longstanding precedent that the source of the execution drugs should remain confidential to avoid "intimidation used by defense counsel and other anti-death penalty groups."

"These death row inmates have not contested their guilt for murdering two innocent victims nor have they contested their sentences of death," Pruitt said. "The legal wrangling of the attorneys for Lockett and Warner has served only to delay their punishment for the heinous crimes they committed."

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Source: Officer.com/AP, April 24, 2014

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