Oklahoma seeks to delay 3 executions amid probe

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) – Oklahoma’s attorney general says the state should delay all scheduled executions while it reviews how it received the wrong drug as it prepared to lethally inject an inmate.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed paperwork Thursday asking the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to halt next Wednesday’s execution of Benjamin Cole, plus the executions of John Marion Grant and Richard Glossip over the next month.

Glossip was set to die Wednesday, but Gov. Mary Fallin halted the execution after the Department of Corrections said it had received a shipment of potassium acetate, rather than the potassium chloride listed in the state’s protocols.

Pruitt said his office needs time to determine what went wrong Wednesday and whether the state’s execution guidelines should be reviewed again.