Breaking News: Executions in Oklahoma still on hold - News Paper

The number of death row inmates who have exhausted all their appeals has grown to 16, with still no plan in place to begin executions again.

The latest inmate to become eligible for an execution date is murderer Richard Norman Rojem Jr., who kidnapped, raped and fatally stabbed a 7-year-old girl in 1984.

Rojem, now 59, was first convicted and sentenced in 1985. He was resentenced - twice - after successful appeals.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined, without comment, to review Rojem's final appeal of his punishment.

"I think we need to move forward, because other states have had problems with their execution protocols," said state Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. "I think we should probably get our act together."

Ritze is on the House Public Safety Committee and has been an author on a number of pro-death penalty measures.

"Every day that goes by that we delay ... is an injustice to families of victims," the legislator said.

Executions have been on hold since the wrong deadly drug was almost used on Sept. 30, 2015. A doctor involved in the process discovered the mistake and the execution was called off.

Officials later confirmed the same wrong deadly drug had been used inadvertently during an execution on Jan. 15, 2015.

A state multicounty grand jury spent months investigating the mix-up. In a report released in May 2016, the grand jury blamed a faulty execution protocol, inexcusable failures by corrections officials and a pharmacist's negligence.

The grand jury recommended a series of changes, and corrections officials have been developing new procedures ever since.

"We're working on it," said Mark Myers, the Corrections Department communications director. "It's a process. We're working closely with the Attorney General's Office as we develop a protocol."

The task of setting execution dates falls to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. The Attorney General's Office has been updating the court monthly since executions were put on hold.

"Although the investigation is complete, it is still not the appropriate time to set an execution date," Attorney General Mike Hunter and Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Miller wrote in the latest status report filed last week.

Source: The Oklahoman, October 8, 2017

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Breaking News: Executions in Oklahoma still on hold - News Paper