Oklahoma official seeks execution dates for 25 inmates

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma’s attorney general has asked the state’s highest appeals court to set execution dates for 25 death row inmates following a federal judge’s rejection of their challenge to the state’s lethal injection method.

In 25 similar filings with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday, Attorney General John O’Connor wrote that the federal court’s stays of execution are no longer in place and that therefore there are no longer any legal impediments to executing the inmates, who have exhausted their appeals.

He suggested that the first inmate who should be put to death is James Coddington, whose March 10 execution was postponed after U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot allowed him to join the lawsuit that ultimately failed.