WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ordered Oklahoma to postpone lethal injections executions using a controversial sedative until the court rules in a challenge involving the drug.

The court’s order Wednesday came as little surprise after both the state and the lawyers for three inmates who faced execution between now and March requested the temporary halt. The justices agreed on Friday to take up the challenge to the use of the sedative midazolam, which has been used in problematic executions in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma.

The case will be argued in April and decided by late June.

Left open by the court’s order is whether Oklahoma can carry out an execution that does not involve midazolam.

Read the whole story at Huffington Post.

Reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision today to stay executions in Oklahoma,  Rev. Adam Leathers, OK-CADP spokesperson and board member said, “We at the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty are excited and encouraged about the Supreme Court’s recent stay of executions. We hope it will shed light on the fact that the Death Penalty, in any of its forms, is evil, wasteful, unconstitutional, and accomplishes nothing. Complete abolishment is the only reasonable course of action.”

Statement issued on Wednesday, Jan 28, 2015 to OK-CADP by Sister Helen Prejean from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, OK:

“We were all there with Richard (Glossip) and his family and friends when the news of the stay came through.  Everybody started laughing, we were all so relieved and happy.  Happy too for John Grant and Benjamin Cole, but thinking also of Charles Warner’s execution before this decision.

“I hope that Richard’s case will now help bring a spotlight to the frailty of the capitol punishment system – that it could come so close to executing an innocent man.  Not the first time it has done so.”

Tags: executions, Okahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Richard Glossip, Stay of Execution, US Supreme Court