Oklahoma inmate exhausts appeals, executions still on hold

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Thirteen Oklahoma inmates are now eligible for execution dates after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a man convicted in a 1999 double slaying.

But executions remain on hold in the state as officials rework Oklahoma’s death penalty protocol, and there’s no indication on when they may resume. According to The Oklahoman (http://bit.ly/2fDizLh ), inmate James Chandler Ryder became the 13th inmate eligible for execution after the nation’s highest court declined Monday to review his appeal.

Ryder was sentenced to death for the killings of Daisy Hallum and her adult son, Sam Hallum, in Pittsburg County.

Oklahoma last executed an inmate in January 2015, and an autopsy showed that officials used a drug in that lethal injection that wasn’t part of the state’s execution protocol.