The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals was asked Tuesday to space out executions even more to ease the “tremendous burden” on the state’s Department of Corrections .
Corrections officials want to go to 90-day intervals, once the next two scheduled lethal injections are carried out.
“The present pace of executions, every 60 days, is too onerous and not sustainable,” said Steven Harpe, the executive director at the Oklahoma Department of Corrections .
Harpe and Attorney General Gentner Drummond made the request in a joint motion filed Tuesday. Their request involves six death row inmates.
Drummond said he personally visited with family members of victims to explain the reason for the request.
“These families have waited far too long for justice to be done,” Drummond said in a news release. “Each family has a heartbreaking story of tragic loss, and it grieves me that the death penalty system takes so many years to deliver closure. Their day for justice draws closer. When that day comes, I will be there to bear witness.”