05 October 2010 :

Judge extends execution stay for Jeffrey Matthews because of drug shortage. Judge Stephen P. Friot extended the stay until Nov. 20. The stay was to expire on Oct. 16. Citing the "utter confusion caused by" prison officials choosing which sedative to use for a lethal injection, a federal judge in Oklahoma City extended the stay of execution. The decision is the 4th time Jeffrey David Matthews has been granted more time before his execution. Once the stay expires, the attorney general's office can ask the state Court of Criminal Appeals to set a new execution date, which generally is scheduled for about 30 days after the request. Gov. Brad Henry granted 2 stays of execution to give defense attorneys time to examine fingerprint evidence. Before those stays, Matthews, 38, white, was scheduled for execution on June 17 and again on July 20. After the governor's 2nd stay expired, Matthews was set for lethal injection on Aug. 17. On Aug. 17, hours before the execution was to happen, Friot issued a 3rd stay. It was to last 60 days. Matthews had objected to the Corrections Department substituting a sedative for its only dose of sodium thiopental, which had expired, according to court records. The root of the 2 latest delays is a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, which Oklahoma normally uses for its lethal injection cocktail. The drug's manufacturer has said it will not have more on the market until next year. In Oklahoma's lethal injection procedure, the sedative is administered first, followed by a drug to stop breathing and then a drug to stop the heart. Prison officials have switched sedatives earmarked for Matthews at least 3 times. When sodium thiopental wasn't available, officials said they would use Brevital. Matthews objected because it hadn't been used in executions before and could be inhumane. Then prison officials said they obtained a dose of sodium thiopental from a different corrections agency and that dose would be used for Matthews' death. Next, realizing another inmate was scheduled to die before Matthews' stay expired, officials said the sole sodium thiopental dose would be used for the execution that came first. Pentobarbital — used for animal euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in Oregon — would be given to Matthews. Matthews' attorneys objected again and asked for an extension of the stay and more time to prepare for a hearing on the use of pentobarbital. The 3rd stay was set to expire on Oct. 16, but Friot extended it to Nov. 20 after a hearing earlier this week. A hearing on the use of pentobarbital and Matthews' stay has been scheduled for Nov. 19. Matthews, 38, was convicted of killing his great uncle Otis Earl Short, 77, during a 1994 robbery.