Oklahoma to Resume Executions

In a 5-3 decision today the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution for Oklahoma murderer John Grant.  Sean Murphy of the Middletown Press reports that the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals had granted a stay yesterday for Grant’s scheduled execution today.  Today’s action by SCOTUS makes it likely that the execution will be carried out.  It will be the first execution in Oklahoma since 2015.  Grant was serving a 150-year sentence for several armed robberies when in 1998, he dragged a female prison cafeteria worker into a closet and stabbed her 16 times with a homemade shank.  Along with Grant, four other condemned Oklahoma murderers lost their federal District Court suit last week seeking to block their pending executions, arguing that the state’s three drug protocol might cause pain in violation of  the 8th Amendment bar against cruel and unusual punishment.

Update:   Grant was executed on Thursday night.