By Associated Press
Oklahoma City, OK – Okla. AG seeks lift of execution stay
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Attorney General Drew Edmondson has asked a federal judge to lift a stay of execution in the case of convicted killer Jeffrey David Matthews.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot stayed Matthews' Aug. 17 execution after the Department of Corrections altered the drugs used in the execution process due to a nationwide shortage of the anesthetic, sodium thiopental.
In a motion filed Wednesday, state officials say DOC has acquired enough sodium thiopental to proceed with the execution without changing its existing lethal injection protocol.
If the stay is lifted, Edmondson will ask the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set a new execution date.
Matthews was convicted and sentenced to death for the January 1994 murder of 77-year-old Otis Earl Short during a robbery of Short's home in Rosedale.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.