Oklahoma's highest criminal court on Wednesday set execution dates for three death row inmates who challenged the use of a drug that will be used in their lethal injections, according to AP. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set execution dates of Sept. 16 for 52-year-old Richard Eugene Glossip, Oct. 7 for 50-year-old Benjamin Robert Cole, and Oct. 28 for 54-year-old John Marion Grant. The three inmates had argued that the state's planned use of the sedative midazolam risked subjecting them to pain and suffering because it doesn't properly render a person unconscious. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month in a 5-4 decision that the drug can be used in executions without violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Terri Watkins, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, said Wednesday that the state has access to the drugs needed to carry out all three executions and is prepared to proceed. An attorney for the inmates, Dale Baich, said in a statement Wednesday that scientific information about midazolam and its use in previous problematic executions shows that it can't maintain anesthesia throughout the execution procedure. The three inmates challenged the use of midazolam after Oklahoma used it in last year's botched execution of Clayton Lockett. Lockett, a convicted murderer who was the first Oklahoma inmate to be put to death with the drug, writhed and moaned on the gurney before state officials tried to halt the execution midway through it. He died anyway, 43 minutes after the execution began. Midazolam also was used in executions that took longer than usual in Arizona and Ohio last year. Oklahoma increased by five times the amount of midazolam it used in the January execution of Charles Warner, who complained of a burning sensation but showed no other obvious signs of physical distress.
