Judge denies execution stays for Julius Jones, 4 other inmates

An Oklahoma City federal judge on Monday denied Julius Jones and four other inmates execution stays.

The decision came just three days before the first execution is scheduled to be carried out. The inmates immediately appealed. 

"The Supreme Court has made it clear that the state's interest in timely enforcement of its judgments cannot be ignored," U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot said in announcing the decision.

Oklahoma has not carried out an execution since January 2015, more than six years ago. A lethal injection scheduled for later that year was called off after the wrong drug was delivered. 

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in September set execution dates after the inmates were kicked out of a federal lawsuit over the lethal injection procedure.

More:What we know about Oklahoma resuming executions for the first time since 2015

The federal judge kicked the inmates out of the lawsuit in August because they had declined on a form "to propose an alternative method of carrying out their sentence of death."

Julius Jones requested temporary stay; Other inmates joined request

Jones asked for a temporary stay after a decision at the federal appeals court in Denver.

Joining him in that emergency request Wednesday were death row inmates John Marion Grant, Donald A. Grant and Gilbert Ray Postelle.

A fifth inmate, Wade Greely Lay, joined in the request Thursday.

Jones, 41, is facing execution for a fatal shooting during a carjacking in Edmond in 1999. He claims he is innocent.

More:Parole board told death row inmate Julius Jones doing business deals

His execution is scheduled for Nov. 18. His clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has been postponed to 9 a.m. Monday.

Millions signed a petition in his support after ABC in 2018 aired the documentary series, "The Last Defense," about his innocence claim.

Scheduled for execution first is John Grant, 60, an armed robber who was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a prison kitchen worker in 1998.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections has told the media his execution will begin at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

The execution for Donald Grant, 45, is set for Jan. 27. He was sentenced to death for killing two workers at the LaQuinta Inn in Del City during a 2001 robbery.

The execution for Postelle, 35, is set for Feb. 17.

Postelle was convicted of murdering four people on Memorial Day 2005 outside a trailer in Del City. He was sentenced to death for two of the murders and to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the other two.

Lay, 60, is set to be executed Jan. 6 for killing a security guard during a botched bank robbery in 2004.

The federal judge plans to hear expert testimony at a trial next year about the sedative used at the start of the lethal injection procedure. Death row inmates complain in their lawsuit that administering that drug, midazolam, will cause "constitutionally intolerable pain and suffering."

The trial is set to begin Feb. 28.

Claims made by attorneys for Julius Jones, other inmates detailed

Attorneys for Jones and the other four inmates claimed the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver reinstated them to the lawsuit Oct. 15. Friot disagreed, saying Monday, "The case is complete to this court as to these five plaintiffs."

The inmates' attorneys also claimed former Attorney General Mike Hunter promised not to seek executions while the lawsuit was pending in Oklahoma City federal court. They asked Friot to enforce that agreement.

The judge also disagreed with that claim. He said Hunter had only agreed not to rush the court. 

The inmates still could get execution stays from the federal appeals court in Denver or the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The district court itself has acknowledged serious questions about whether Oklahoma’s execution procedures will cause prisoners unconstitutional pain and suffering. With a trial on that very question set to begin in February, executions should not go forward," attorney Dale Baich said.

"We will ask the 10th Circuit to review the district court’s decision and stay Mr. Grant’s scheduled execution on Thursday, as well as those that are set over the coming months.”

Before ruling Monday, the judge heard testimony about an execution last week in Alabama that involved the use of midazolam.

Willie B. Smith III was executed Thursday evening for a fatal shooting in 1991. Smith jerked his arm at the start of the lethal injection, bucked up twice on the gurney and then gasped for air for minutes, his attorney, Spencer Hahn, told the judge.

However, a state expert, Dr. Joseph Antognini, testified the public has a misconception that a patient will be still during anesthesia. 

"Quite a bit of movement can occur during anesthesia," the former professor of anesthesiology testified.

Antognini said movement and labored breathing are pretty common.