UPDATED 12:09 p.m.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 to deny clemency for Clayton Lockett, who confessed to shooting and burying alive a teenager in Perry in 1999.
Lockett has been on death row for more than a decade for the 1999 murder of Stephanie Neiman, whom Lockett shot twice and buried alive.
OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma County judge next week will consider whether to delay the scheduled executions of two death row inmates.
The two convicted murderers filed a civil lawsuit against the Oklahoma Department of Corrections earlier this week. They say they fear dying in a cruel or unusual manner.
Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner are scheduled to die next month.
Lockett was convicted of a violent Perry home invasion in 1999. A 19-year-old woman was raped and killed. She was found buried in a shallow grave. Two others who were inside the home were beaten and kidnapped in the crime.
Warner is convicted of raping and killing an 11-month-old child in 1997.
The two are scheduled to be injected with controversial execution drug, Pentobarbital, as part of the state’s lethal injection process. The lawsuit alleges the drug is made from an Oklahoma compounding pharmacy, which is not strictly regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration.
It is similar to a suit filed on the behalf of a Missouri inmate who was set to be executed using the Oklahoma-made drug. It cites the Department of Correction’s execution of convicted murderer Michael Wilson as a reason for clarity on execution drugs. Wilson cried, “I can feel my whole body burning,” during his execution earlier this year.
Under state law, Oklahoma cannot disclose information about the drugs, even to inmates.
They’ve asked district judge Patricia Parrish to delay their executions until the state says how and when it obtained the drugs.
Parrish will hold a hearing Tuesday morning.
Lockett is scheduled to die March 20th and Warner is to die a week later. They are not challenging their convictions, but want a temporary restraining order to prevent their executions until they know more about the drugs.
