Oklahoma inmate Donald Grant is scheduled to be put to death this week after a panel of judges denied his stay of execution on Monday.
Grant, 46, is set to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday after being convicted of killing two Del City hotel workers during a robbery in 2001, KOCO-TV reported.
A panel of three judges in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his motion to postpone the execution date after Grant's attorneys argued that the state's current three-drug cocktail for lethal injections is unconstitutional, The Associated Press reported.
Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol uses the sedative midazolam, which attorneys for Grant and Gilbert Postelle, another death row inmate who was denied a stay of execution Monday, said doesn't work and "has a substantial risk of severe pain and suffering," KOCO reported.
KOCO said the inmate's attorneys argued that the current cocktail for lethal injections resulted in a "botched" execution of John Grant, who was seen violently convulsing and vomiting on the table after the drugs were administered.
The attorneys argued that further lethal injections should be put on hold until the February trial to determine if the state can continue using the current three-drug cocktail, according to KOCO.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot previously rejected the complaint and said midazolam is reliable. Friot ruled that the attorneys failed to prove the state's methods had a substantial risk of severe pain, The Oklahoman reported.
In the Monday decision, the appeals court ruled the attorneys for Grant and Postelle failed to show that Friot abused his discretion when denying the motion, The Oklahoman reported.
Grant is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at 10 a.m. Thursday, The Oklahoman reported.
"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," said Grant's attorney, Susan Otto, according to KOCO.
The state scheduled Postelle's execution by lethal injection for February 17.
According to The Oklahoman, Postelle was convicted of killing four people on Memorial Day in 2005 in Del City. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for two murders and sentenced to death for the others.
