OKLAHOMA CITY—Oklahoma’s attorney general has asked the state’s highest appeals court to set execution dates for 25 death row inmates following a federal judge’s rejection of their challenge to the state’s lethal injection method.
In 25 similar filings with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday, Attorney General John O’Connor wrote that the federal court’s stays of execution are no longer in place and that therefore there are no longer any legal impediments to executing the inmates, who have exhausted their appeals.
The state Department of Corrections has asked that the first execution be set no earlier than Aug. 25, O’Connor wrote. He asked that the dates be set at four week intervals due to the time required for a clemency hearing for each inmate prior to an execution, and that the DOC requested executions be set at least 35 days after the court’s order….