Death-row inmate Michael Hooper questions constitutionality of Oklahoma executions

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- An Oklahoma death-row inmate set to die next month has asked a federal judge for a hearing on his request to stop the execution.

Attorneys for Michael Hooper sued the state earlier this month when officials said they had only one dose of a drug used in the state's three-drug execution protocol. The complaint was amended on Tuesday after the state announced it had obtained 20 more doses of pentobarbital.

The complaint alleges that nothing requires the state to have a backup dose of pentobarbital if the first dose fails to render Hooper unconscious. It also questions whether the state's execution protocol is constitutional because other states have adopted a one-drug protocol.

Hooper is scheduled to die Aug. 14 for the deaths of his former girlfriend and her two children.