Updated Oct. 26, 4:15 p.m.
A federal judge declined to block the execution of John Marion Grant set for Thursday.
A hearing for an injunction took place on Monday at the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City. Judge Stephen Friot ruled that Grant’s execution can go forward despite his status as a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol.
Public defender Dale Baich said it came down to Grant and others declining to pick a different method of execution as Friot previously ordered.
“Because these six plaintiffs did not affirmatively choose an alternative method of execution, they were dismissed out and the judge said they could not win,” said Baich.
Those plaintiffs were reinstated to the lethal injection lawsuit by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, but Friot found there was still not enough cause to stop the executions.
In his order, Friot wrote that the plaintiffs will not suffer any “non-speculative irreparable harm” without an injunction despite the fact they’re facing death.
“It’s a little complicated,” Baich said. “Because we’re asking for an injunction we have a higher burden to meet, and the court determined we did not meet that burden of showing harm.”
Baich said his office has appealed the decision to the Tenth Circuit, and there should be an emergency hearing shortly.
It’s not an unfamiliar situation for Baich.
“Back in 2015, this same scenario played out. It’s really sort of deja vu.”
In 2015, after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett, Friot also declined to grant an injunction to four men on death row. Ultimately Charles Warner was killed with the wrong drugs, then executions were called off entirely for six years.
Friot was appointed by George W. Bush in 2001 after 19 years of practicing corporate law. His legacy includes siding with religious organizations opposing Obamacare contraception mandates, a denial to assign responsibility for earthquakes to fracking operations, and an offer to give a drug-addicted woman a lighter sentence if she agreed to get sterilized.
Friot achieved senior status in 2014, meaning he hears a reduced number of cases. He will preside over the lethal injection trial in Feb. 2022.
Correction: This story previously had the headline "Judge rules death is not 'irreparable harm'; request for execution stay advances to 10th Circuit." Friot's use of the phrase "irreparable harm" was referring to the inmates' claim their executions would subject them to unconstitutional pain and suffering, not to their death sentences. In his order, Friot wrote the men "failed to demonstrate that, absent a preliminary injunction, they would suffer any non-speculative irreparable harm."