Two Oklahoma inmates that are on death row have requested that they not die by lethal injection. Instead, they would prefer death by a firing squad.
Donald Grant is set to be executed on January 27. Gilbert Postelle is scheduled to be put to death on February 17. For now, they would like a temporary injunction that would postpone their upcoming executions. This would be until the judge can make a decision on whether the state’s three-drug lethal injections are constitutional. The judge is scheduled to make a decision on Friday.
On Monday, an expert witness, Dr. James Williams, testified in court. He said that a firing squad would entail using four high-powered rifles to the “cardiac bundle” of the heart and would be swift and painless.
He added that this method would have a very low likelihood that the execution would go wrong, unlike lethal injections.
Furthermore, Justin Farris, chief of operations at the Department of Corrections, added testimony on the deaths of two other inmates on death row. He witnessed the execution of John Grant and Bigler Stouffer. Grant convulsed and threw up as he was being executed on October 28. On December 9, Stouffer was executed with no problems.
Right now, Oklahoma doesn’t have any other methods in place for executions other than lethal injections.
