Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor is asking the state to schedule executions of 25 prisoners on death row.
Executions in Oklahoma had been suspended temporarily as death row inmates fought the state's method of execution—a lethal injection of three drugs. One of the drugs, midazolam, is supposed to serve as a sedative that would render the prisoner unable to feel the pain as potassium chloride stops the heart. The death row inmates and their attorneys argued that midazolam has shown to be insufficient to dull the pain and executing prisoners with these drugs amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.
