A federal appeals court has denied an Oklahoma death row inmate's challenge to the state's lethal injection protocol and request for stay of execution.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision in the case of 39-year-old Michael Hooper.
Hooper is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the December 1993 deaths of his former girlfriend and her two children.
Hooper filed a lawsuit last month. He wanted the state to provide a backup dose of pentobarbital.
It's the first of three drugs administered during a lethal injection.
The lawsuit also called into question the state's lethal injection method.
