Oklahoma attorney general agrees to stay of execution

Thursday, May 8, 2014

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma's attorney general has agreed to a six-month stay of execution for a death row inmate scheduled to die next week while an investigation is conducted into last week's botched lethal injection.

In a filing Thursday with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office said it will not object to a 180-day stay of execution while the investigation is underway.

The inmate, Charles Warner, was scheduled for execution last week on the same night as Clayton Lockett in what would have been the state's first double execution since 1937. But Gov. Mary Fallin issued a two-week stay of execution for Warner after Lockett's execution went awry.

Warner's attorneys asked for at least a six-month stay of execution while the investigation is being conducted.