Oklahoma execution set for tonight

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma plans to execute a death row inmate with the same three-drug method Florida intends to use about an hour earlier.

The lethal injection set for Thursday comes after a nearly nine-month delay prompted by a botched lethal injection last spring.

Both Oklahoma and Florida plan to start the executions with midazolam. The sedative has been challenged in court as ineffective in rendering a person properly unconscious before the second and third drugs are administered.

Oklahoma has increased the amount of midazolam it uses to mirror the exact mix that Florida has used in 11 successful executions.

Charles Warner, the Oklahoma inmate scheduled to die Thursday, and three other death row inmates in the state have filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to stop their executions.