OKLAHOMA CITY — Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the use of one of the drugs in Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol, the state is prepared to move forward with three previously scheduled executions.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesman Terri Watkins confirmed Monday that the state has access to midazolam and the other drugs needed to carry out the executions.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office is expected to notify the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals that three inmates have exhausted their appeals. The court will then set execution dates for Richard Eugene Glossip, John Marion Grant and Benjamin Robert Cole.
The three inmates had challenged the use of midazolam, but Supreme Court justices voted 5-4 that it can be used without violating the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.