Federal judge OKs Oklahoma’s lethal injection method

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge in Oklahoma says the state’s three-drug lethal injection method is constitutional. Judge Stephen Friot’s ruling on Monday paves the way for the state to request execution dates for more than two dozen death row inmates who were plaintiffs in the case. Attorneys for those inmates are expected to appeal Friot’s ruling to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The ruling follows a six-day federal trial earlier this year. Attorneys for the death row inmates argued that the first of the three drugs, the sedative midazolam, is not enough to render an inmate unable to feel pain. Attorneys for the state rejected that argument.