OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma plans to resume executions Thursday after botching its last one and will use the same three-drug method as a Florida lethal injection scheduled for the same day.
The drug mixture begins with the sedative midazolam and includes the same drugs used in Oklahoma’s botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April. Lockett writhed on the gurney and moaned after he’d been declared unconscious.
Oklahoma increased the amount of midazolam it uses to mirror the exact recipe that Florida has used in 11 successful executions.
But midazolam also was used in problematic executions last year in Arizona and Ohio, and four Oklahoma death row inmates asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to halt their executions. They argue the drug won’t render them completely unconscious before the second and third drugs.
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