Oklahoma will execute 3 men after the Supreme Court upholds lethal drug

Oklahoma will execute 3 men after the Supreme Court upholds lethal drug

Despite a botched execution last year, Oklahoma will resume its lethal injections.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the sedative drug midazolam could be used for criminal executions. The 5-4 ruling clears the way for several states, including Oklahoma and California, to go ahead with delayed lethal injections.

The Justices ultimately decided that using midazolam as part of a lethal injection did not violate the Eighth Amendment. That is, it did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

However, two dissenting justices, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, notably commented that the death penalty in and of itself is unconstitutional. This is the first time any Justice has used such strong language against capital punishment.

The conservative majority of the Court found that arguments against the drug’s effectiveness in executions were speculative in nature. Justice Samuel Alito said that the botched executions in Arizona and Oklahoma last year have “little probative value for present purposes.”

The execution Justice Alito is referring to is that of Clayton Lockett. Last year, it took 43 minutes for him succumb to the lethal injection. During that time, the man writhed and moaned, clenching his teeth for several minutes. The prison officials tried stop the process but they had passed the point of no return. There was nothing to do but wait.

Midazolam is not typically manufactured in Europe, which has banned the production of many drugs used for lethal injections. Instead, it produced in several states. It is therefore a popular choice to include in the lethal cocktail used for executions.

The Attorney General of Oklahoma, Scott Pruitt, has notified the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals that three convicted men have exhausted their attempts at appeal. Richard Eugene Glossip, John Marion Grant and Benjamin Robert Cole are set to be executed in August.

“The families in these three cases have waited a combined 48 years for justice,” Pruitt said in a statement.

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