Kevin J. Gross et al., Respondents
Patrick R. Wyrick, Counsel of Record
In 1977, the Oklahoma Legislature directed its head medical examiner to come up with a way to execute its death row inmates that was more humane than the electric chair. His solution was a three-drug cocktail that began with a general anesthetic, sodium thiopental, and was followed by drugs that induced paralysis and stopped the heart. In 2011, however, the manufacturer of sodium thiopental, under pressure from anti-death-penalty activists, stopped selling the drug in the United States. Oklahoma then switched to another anesthetic, pentobarbital. When those supplies were also blocked, the State opted for midazolam. On June 25, 2014, a…
