McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma prison officials are letting the public get its first look at the newly renovated death chamber inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
The Department of Corrections is allowing members of the media inside the prison's maximum-security H-unit on Thursday to see the new room.
Prison officials have completely rebuilt the death chamber and adjacent viewing rooms to give executioners more room. They've also ordered backup medical equipment and developed new protocols for carrying out executions since a lethal injection went awry in the spring.
The director of the state prison system, Robert Patton, has said his agency will be prepared to carry out the next scheduled execution on Nov. 13.
But many death penalty experts doubt that and want the federal court to look at the protocols.