The State Of Oklahoma Is Ready To Kill People Again

More than five years after Oklahoma famously botched their last death row execution, state officials say they are ready to resume justice. If you remember, it was quite the scandal. It took investigative officials a while to determine what went wrong after the last executed inmate eventually died after 43 minutes of agonizing pain in the chamber. They had used the wrong cocktail of drugs, and it made for a justifiable death in a manner no one should have experienced.

The big talking point of the time was there was somehow a manufacturing shortage of the drug meant for this purpose, and a mixup happened somewhere down the line. Skip forward to 2020, the director for the Department of Corrections issued a proclamation that Oklahoma now has in place a series of new protocols that should keep similar failures from happening in the future.

While nothing is absolute, you can almost bet they've done their best to put all of their ducks in a row in order to resume carrying out sentences as ordered. Oklahoma sure doesn't need another botched execution on our minds. It was a shame.

The long and short of the new method of ensuring proper handling of the required drugs shall be checks and balances at every step, from manufacturing to loading the syringes. Officials say it's as foolproof as it can get.

It suddenly brings to the forefront, the question remains if capital punishment is an ethical or justifiable punishment at all, and it has thrust an old case back into the spotlight.

Julius Jones was convicted of murder at 19 years old. He has spent nearly half his life on death row since his 2002 conviction. In recent weeks, especially in the Oklahoma City metro area, his supporters are calling for a reexamination of his case, insisting he is innocent.

All fingers point to a failed defense team, and those who defend him now say he has a relevant and solid alibi for the shooting he has been convicted of committing. It now remains a decision for Governor Stitt. He can either move ahead commuting Julius' sentence, or allow the state to carry out his execution on November 18.