US Supreme Court lifts stays; Oklahoma to execute man
The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted stays of execution for two Oklahoma men. [Mark Fischer / CC BY-SA 2.0 ]
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted stays of execution for two Oklahoma men. The high court’s move Thursday allows the state to move forward with its first lethal injection in more than six years.
The court lifted stays for John Marion Grant and Julius Jones that the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put in place a day earlier. They’re are among more than two dozen death row inmates who are challenging Oklahoma’s three-drug lethal injection protocols.
60-year-old Grant is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was sentenced to die for the 1998 stabbing death of a prison cafeteria worker.
The execution of John Marion Grant will be the state’s first attempt to administer the death penalty since a series of flawed executions more than six years ago. Grant was serving a 130-year prison sentence for several armed robberies when witnesses say he dragged prison cafeteria worker Gay Carter into a mop closet and stabbed her 16 times with a homemade shank. He was sentenced to die in 1999.
Jones’ execution is set for Nov. 18.