OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma plans to hold its first double execution in nearly 80 years, Gov. Mary Fallin said Thursday.

The move comes a day after the state Supreme Court removed one of the final obstacles, ruling late Wednesday that Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner are not entitled to know the source of the drugs that will be used to kill them. The inmates had sought that information through a civil lawsuit.

“The defendants had their day in court. The court has made a decision,” Fallin said. “Two men that do not contest their guilt in heinous murders will now face justice, and the families and friends of their victims will now have closure.”

The Oklahoma Supreme Court also dissolved a stay of execution it had issued in a sharply divided and much criticized 5-4 decision that put the state’s two highest courts at odds.

Because the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has exclusive jurisdiction over criminal matters, Fallin and others accused the state’s high court of initially overstepping its civil-only bounds – to the point that some legislators called for impeaching the five justices who had voted to delay the executions.

Defense attorney Seth Day said that without knowing the source of the drugs, the public has no way of knowing whether the execution will be carried out in a “constitutional and humane manner.”

 


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