The state of Oklahoma plans to execute one prisoner per month for the next 29 months, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Fox News reports that the executions will begin on August 25 with James Coddington being put to death, followed by Richard Glossip on September 22.
- Execution dates for several other death row inmates have also been set. Those inmates include Benjamin Cole, Richard Fairchild, John Hannon, and Scott Eizember. More dates for other prisoners are expected to be set in the coming weeks.
- Oklahoma has “one of the nation’s busiest death chambers.” Or at least it did until controversy arose around the state’s botched executions, which caused a de facto moratorium.
- Death row inmates have been put through hell in the state. In April 2014, Clayton Lockett took 40 minutes to die after a prolonged struggle thanks to a new lethal injection protocol. Then, in September 2015, Richard Glossip was due to be executed in a few hours before officials realized they’d administered the wrong drug. They later discovered they’d given the same incorrect drug in January of the same year.
- Oklahoma resumed executions in October 2021. It was then that they put prisoner John Grant to death. He was strapped to the gurney and began convulsing and vomiting after the first drug, midazolam, was given to him. Fifteen minutes later, he was declared unconscious before being declared dead six minutes after that.
- Oklahoma seemingly loves executions. Between 1915 and 2022, Oklahoma State Penitentiary has put 196 men and three women to death. Of those, 82 died by electrocution, one by hanging, and 116 by lethal injection.
