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Oklahoma death row (archive image)
Photo: Sue Ogrocki / AP
They are sentenced to death, but Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle at least want to decide how they will end their lives.
As reported by the AP news agency, the two men are demanding that their execution in the US state of Oklahoma be executed by shooting and not, as is usually the case, with lethal injection.
According to the AP, Grant and Postelle are appealing to District Judge Stephen Friot to postpone their imminent executions so that a trial can take place over whether Oklahoma's method of execution - the injection of a mixture of three different poisons - is constitutional.
A corresponding procedure with the judge should begin on February 28, according to the AP.
That would be too late for both of those affected: Grant's execution is scheduled for January 27th, Postelle's for February 17th.
In order for the two to be admitted as plaintiffs at all, they first had to choose an alternative method of execution.
"To watch cruelly"
The two convicts argue that shooting is the safer form of killing.
"It may be cruel to watch, but we all agree that it is the faster method," said attorney Jim Stronski in a hearing before Judge Friot, to which experts were also invited.
According to the AP, Friot wants to make a decision by the end of the week.
"There's a lot to think about," said the judge.
According to the report, an emergency doctor had a say in the hearing.
He had confirmed that the condemned would feel no pain when shot by an execution squad and with shots from at least four powerful rifles in the heart.
In contrast to the poison method, there is also less risk that the execution will go wrong.
No protocol for other execution methods in Oklahoma
There have been no gunned executions in Oklahoma, according to the AP.
The legal situation makes this possible, however, if other methods such as lethal injection turn out to be unconstitutional or unworkable.
However, there is currently no protocol for methods other than injection.
The two killers John Marion Grant and Bigler Stouffer were most recently executed in the state.
Grant's October execution was the first in Oklahoma in more than six years.
According to media reports, the 60-year-old had resisted the injection violently and vomited and convulsed during a minute-long agony.
In the other case, the execution went without complications.
fek / AP