News / Human Rights

US Supreme Court blocks three Oklahoma executions over controversial drug

Wednesday, 28 January 2015 11:38 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 28 January 2015 11:47 PM ]

Demonstrators hold a banner on the steps of the US Supreme Court in 2012 during a protest against the death penalty. (AP photo)

The US Supreme Court has blocked the next three executions scheduled in Oklahoma due to concerns about the controversial drug cocktail the state uses for lethal injections.

Both the Oklahoma state and lawyers for three convicts had called on the court to put the executions of three men on hold, including Richard Glossip, who was scheduled to die Thursday night, until a decision is made on whether the state’s protocol for lethal injection is constitutional.

The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that Oklahoma could not execute prisoners using the sedative midazolam while the case is pending, which will be heard in April.

"It is hereby ordered that petitioners' executions using midazolam are stayed pending final disposition of this case," the court ruled.

The botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April 2014 in Oklahoma and other similar cases in Ohio and Arizona became very controversial in the US with human rights group calling for an end to the torturous killings.

Lockett’s execution went so badly that the authorities tried to cancel it before it was over. Doctors could not save Lockett, which led to his death reportedly of a heart attack. The warden later described the execution as "a bloody mess."

The state, which put executions on hold after Lockett moaned and writhed on the gurney for 43 minutes before his death, was about to resume them.

On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide a case on the constitutionality of the new combinations of drugs used for executions.

The tragic end to Lockett's life caused Oklahoma to postpone the execution of a second inmate named Charles Warner for nine months. He was executed on January 15, when the Supreme Court on a 5-4 vote declined to halt it. Both death row inmates were African American.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the racial ratio of the victims of the death penalty in the US has been striking since the revival of the practice in 1976, with the penalty being disproportionately imposed on blacks and ethnic minorities.

Statistics released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice show that 11 of the 16 executed prisoners in the state of Texas, which has been responsible for nearly 40 percent of all executions in the US since 1976, were African American or Hispanic in 2013.

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