Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Sues Over Supply Of Lethal Injection Drug

An Oklahoma death row inmate scheduled to die next month has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the state's limited supply of a lethal injection drug could lead to a painful death.

7/2/2012 Related Story: Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Waives Clemency Hearing

The Oklahoman reports Saturday that Michael Hooper is seeking an execution using a single drug instead of three.

Hooper is scheduled to die August 14. He was convicted of killing a mother and her two children in 1993.

The newspaper says the lawsuit, filed this week against the head of the state corrections department, seeks to halt Hooper's execution because the Corrections Department has only one dose of pentobarbital left.

Neither Hooper's lawyer, Jim Drummond, nor a corrections spokesman responded to messages seeking comment on Saturday.