Oken’s lawyers filed the motion last week with the Court of Appeals seeking to halt the execution while the court considers Oken’s contention that the state’s lethal injection method violates Maryland law and is unconstitutional.
The arguments in Annapolis will be made by Oken’s lawyer Fred Warren Bennett, who has gained two previous execution delays for his client, and by lawyers with the Maryland attorney general’s office.
Yesterday evening, Bennett said he would spend the night preparing his remarks.
“They’re going to have a boatload of questions,” Bennett said of the appeals court judges. “This could be the hardest appellate arguments – for both sides – so far.”
Assistant Attorney General Scott S. Oakley, who along with Assistant Attorney General Ann N. Bosse is to represent the state today, said the court’s decision to hear oral arguments did not surprise him.
Once last year and once in 2002, the Court of Appeals delayed Oken’s execution because of other pending appeals. Bennett said if the court rules against this request for a stay of execution, he will appeal the decision to federal court.
Oken, convicted of raping and killing three women in 1987, is scheduled to be executed next week. Maryland’s last execution, of Tyrone X. Gilliam, took place in 1998.