US Supreme Court declines to halt pending Oklahoma execution

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request from a death row inmate in Oklahoma to stop his upcoming lethal injection. In a brief order on Wednesday, the court indicated 46-year-old Donald Grant’s application for a temporary stay of execution was denied. The decision paves the way for Grant to receive a lethal injection at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Grant’s attorneys had argued that Oklahoma’s three-drug protocol exposes him to a constitutionally unacceptable risk of severe pain. Grant was convicted and sentenced to die for killing two Del City hotel workers during a robbery in 2001.