Oklahoma To Reveal Drugs Used To Execute Prisoners

Thursday, April 3rd 2014, 7:27 pm

By: News 9

Oklahoma has revealed the drugs that will be used to execute prisoners, but the state and Attorney General Scott Pruitt will continue to fight to protect the origin of those drugs.

"Confidentiality matters to us so we can seek to protect those that are providing the drugs to us so they are not intimidated, threatened or otherwise so they choose not to provide not to supply the drugs," said Pruitt.

To harbor U.S. pharmacies, Pruitt references reactions from international pharmacies when faced with threats from those who oppose the death penalty.

"They simply quit supplying those drugs for executions," said Pruitt.

So after a recent shortage of drugs that has delayed the execution of two inmates, Oklahoma has recommended a new three drug method. An Oklahoma court ruled the inmates have a right to know the source of that method. Pruitt plans to prove confidence in the drugs through independent tests.

3/26/2014 Related Story: Judge Says Execution Statute Over Injection Drugs Is Unconstitutional

"It provides all the information a defendant needs to know…if this is going to go the way it is supposed to go, then the source is irrelevant," said Pruitt,

And for Debra Wyatt, whose mother and father where murdered in 2003, she feels this whole conversation is irrelevant.

"I feel like we've been to hell and back," said Wyatt.

The man who murdered Debra's parents, Scott Eizember, was sentenced to death in 2005 and currently remains on death row because of appeals.

"He didn't care what kind of pain they were in and I just find it bizarre that we care somebody might gasp while someone is being executed after what the families have been put through," said Wyatt,

And the threats Pruitt fears for pharmacies, Debra already knows all too well. She's faced criticism for calling the death penalty justice for her parents.

"It's really tiresome. It's very uncomfortable and it hurts my family. It's unfair," said Wyatt.

Pruitt is already in the process of appealing the court's decision. The execution for those two inmates is set for later this month.

3/18/2014 Related Story: OK Executions Delayed After State Runs Out Of Lethal Drugs