Gov. Mary Fallin has been in touch with Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as he investigates breaches of the state’s lethal injection protocol.
Fallin said Pruitt’s inquiry is moving along.
"We don’t talk on a day-to-day basis about it, but I have told the attorney general I’m very supportive of doing everything he can with his inquiry into the protocols, into what might have happened, and he needs to be allowed to do his job," Fallin said. "And he’s doing a great job, and I support that."
The recent string of mistakes administering lethal injections in Oklahoma is not going to lead to changes at the top of the Department of Corrections just yet.
"We need to allow [Pruitt] the time to give us the information before we make any decisions," Fallin said. "But I have, as you know, the attorney and I have stopped all executions until we have confidence in how our protocols work in our state."
Fallin halted an execution last month because the Department of Corrections had potassium acetate rather than the approved potassium chloride. The state recently disclosed potassium acetate was used in a January execution. The corrections department has not commented.
Despite the recent problems with lethal injections, the governor is not considering pushing the state away from the death penalty. Fallin said an overwhelming majority of Oklahomans still support it.
"It’s important that we restore confidence in how we carry out our protocol and our execution process, which is current state law with the death penalty, and we get to the bottom of what has happened," Fallin said.
This week, Pruitt asked for permission to disclose information in a lawsuit over Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol only to the judge and not to attorneys representing death row inmates. That lawsuit is separate from his inquiry.
