Two Death Row Inmates Demanding Firing Squad Execution Instead Of Lethal Injection

Two Death Row inmates are demanding to be executed by firing squad rather than via lethal injections.

Prisoners Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle in Oklahoma have spent the last 11 and 17 years respectively behind bars waiting to be executed.

However, their lawyers have put forward a case against the prison and have argued that the current method of lethal infection carries a 'substantial risk of severe pain and suffering'.

Attorney Jim Stronski told a judge in a meeting on Monday (10 January) that a bullet fired into the heart of an inmate, although not nice to watch, would be a lot more pain free and quicker.

His attorney Susan Otto says Grant is 'terrified' of his upcoming execution.

Ms Otto said: "Mr Grant is well aware he’s going to be executed. He does not wish to be executed. He is afraid, and he understands that he may die like John Grant. And he’s terrified of that."

John Grant was executed by lethal injection for murdering a prison guard last October, and witnesses reported that he convulsed and vomited before he died.

In 2005, Postelle murdered four people, who he claimed injured his father in a motorbike incident.

He denies any memory of the incident and says he had a meth addiction from a very young age.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for Grant and Postelle in late 2021.

Oklahoma is set to decide if further use of lethal injection on death row is constitutional in a trial next month, but both men are scheduled to be executed before it begins.

Another Oklahoma prisoner's life was spared hours before he was due to be executed thanks to one of last year's most signed petitions.

A change.org petition set up by Cece Jones-Davis begged the Governor of Oklahoma and the Pardon and Parole Board to reconsider his sentence and helped draw attention towards the case.

Jones, who has always maintained his innocence, spent almost 20 years on death row and was scheduled to be executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester at 4pm on 19 November this year. 

However, at 12.45 pm Jones and his lawyers were told he had been granted clemency, meaning the execution was off and his sentence commuted to life without the possibility of parole.