OKLAHOMA CITY – Local attorneys said they don’t understand why Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has filed a motion to keep the details of a lawsuit secret, and they are just as frustrated by his reluctance to explain his reasoning.
“People need to know,” said criminal defense attorney Garvin Isaacs. “If we’re a government of the people, of the people and for the people, we need to know what’s being used.”
Earlier this week, Pruitt asked a judge to keep information in a lethal injection lawsuit private – withholding it from attorneys for death row inmates.
A judge has since granted the AG’s ex parte motion request.
The AG’s office would not tell NewsChannel 4 why it filed the request.
When asked why it would not disclose those details, the office again told NewsChannel 4 it had no comment.
“We, as citizens of Oklahoma, have a duty to participate in what goes on in our government,” Isaacs said. “And, how do we participate, when we don’t even know the chemistry that is used in a death penalty case?”
The plaintiffs in the case filed a response to the AG’s motion, saying, “It is unclear, from the motion, what relief defendants (AG) are seeking, and defendants have failed to demonstrate why an ex parte filing is necessary.”
The motions come after the state was forced to stop the execution of Richard Glossip last month, because the wrong drug was delivered to the state penitentiary in McAlester.
An autopsy revealed the same incorrect drug was used in the execution of Charles Warner in January.
The state has since stayed all upcoming executions indefinitely.
