Split Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals grants state’s request to add an extra month between scheduled executions

As reported in this local article, the “Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has decided future executions will be set 90 days apart ‘unless circumstances dictate modification’.”  Here is more on an interesting ruling in response to an interesting request:

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond had asked for more time to reduce the stress on the volunteer execution teams. He was joined in the request by Steven Harpe, the executive director of the Department of Corrections. “The present pace of executions, every 60 days, is too onerous and not sustainable,” Harpe said.

The decision on 90-day intervals was announced Tuesday. It was not unanimous. Two of the five judges called for executions to remain at 60 days apart.  “Individuals in many professions face demanding and arduous duties as part of their job requirements,” Judge Gary Lumpkin wrote in opposing more time. “Personnel in our military continuously face life and death situations but they step up each day and do their duty.”

All five judges agreed, though, that executions will be set one at a time from now on instead of in phases. The state has a backlog because of a hiatus on lethal injections that lasted almost seven years. A dozen have been carried out since they resumed in 2021 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. The latest was April 4.

Drummond and Harpe in January asked the court to go to 90-day intervals once the second phase of executions is completed in June…. Drummond last year called for a change to 60-day intervals to reduce the stress on staff and give more time for training. The Court of Criminal Appeals agreed, resetting seven executions.

The court acknowledged Tuesday that scheduling executions in phases has not worked.  Judges told the attorney general to timely notify them each time an inmate is executed, gets a stay or has a stay lifted so the next execution can be set.

Lumpkin on Tuesday pointed out the Department of Corrections carried out 18 executions in 2001, seven in 2002 and 14 in 2003. “It is time to realize the victims and their families must be remembered and the law established by the Oklahoma Legislature followed,” he wrote. “As shown in 2001-2003 by the actions of DOC employees, they can step up to meet the challenges placed before them when proper leadership is provided.”

UPDATE: A helpful reader helped me find my way to this report on the ruling that includes the full order from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in In re The Setting of Execution Dates.