TULSA, Okla. — Attorney General Gentner Drummond and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Steven Harpe filed a motion to issue 90 days intervals between executions.
The motion was filed in the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and asks that the next round of executions be scheduled with 90 days in between each one.
The decision to file the motion came as the scheduling of an execution launches a series of administrative and procedural tasks that must be completed by the ODOC before the execution can be followed through, the court affidavit said.
These task often happen weeks before the execution.
“The previous model put a massive strain on ODOC to carry out daily operations due to the time the employees spent away from their primary posts to perform the required number of drills,” said Harpe.
Before Drummond and Harpe filed the joint motion they spoke to the families of the victims slain by the convicted murderers who will be affected by this decision. The conversations were initiated to explain their reasoning behind the decision.
This is not the first time a request similar to this was made. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted Drummond's motion last year to schedule the executions 60 days apart.
“We appreciate Attorney General Drummond’s help in navigating this petition to adjust executions to every 90 days," Harpe said. "This will allow ODOC to carry out the court-ordered warrants within a timeframe that will minimize the disruptions to normal operations. This pace also protects our team’s mental health and allows time for them to process and recover between the scheduled executions.”
Six convicted murders on death row will be affected by this decision. Richard Norman Rojem, Emmanuel Littlejohn, Kevin Ray Underwood, Wendell Arden Grissom, Tremane Wood and Kendrick Antonio Simpson are those to be impacted.
Read the full motion here.
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