Stay of Execution Extended for Oklahoma Death Row Inmate

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A federal judge has extended a stay of execution for an Oklahoma death row inmate convicted of killing his 77-year-old great-uncle 16 years ago.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot took the action in the case of 38-year-old Jeffrey David Matthews.

Friot granted the stay hours before Matthews was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Aug. 17. The stay was to expire on Oct. 16. but was extended until Nov. 20.

Friot stayed the execution after defense attorneys objected to Department of Corrections plans to substitute the first of three drugs used in the lethal injection process. The judge says there is still confusion over what drug will be used.

Matthews was convicted of the 1994 murder of Otis Earl Short.

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