Washington ( CNN ) The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up a case concerning the lethal injection protocol that left an inmate in Oklahoma to die slowly and gasping for breath last year . The case , which is likely to be heard this term , was brought by inmates who claim the state protocol violates the Constitution 's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and could open a new chapter in the ongoing battle over the patchwork system of execution procedures in the United States . `` Petitioners are pleased that the Supreme Court will review their case , '' said Dale Baich , one of the attorneys representing the death row inmates . In a statement , Baich said that the protocol is `` not capable of producing a humane execution , even if administered properly. `` An original plaintiff in the case , Charles F. Warner , was put to death last week . Another plaintiff , Richard E. Glossip , is set to die on January 29 . It was just nine months ago that Oklahoma botched the execution of Clayton Lockett using the same protocol . Related : Botched lethal injection marks new front in battle over executions . Botched Oklahoma execution haunts inmate as death nears . But Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt defended the state 's lethal injection procedure in a statement Friday . `` Oklahoma 's execution protocol has been affirmed as constitutional by two federal courts and has successfully been implemented in Oklahoma , as well as more than 10 similar executions in Florida , '' he said . `` We will continue to defend the constitutionality of this protocol in order to preserve DOC 's ability to proceed with the sentences that were given to each inmate by a jury of their peers . '' In 2008 -- in a case called Baze v. Rees -- the court found Kentucky 's lethal injection protocol constitutional , but since then , as they struggle to locate lethal injection drugs , many states have changed their protocols and have experimented with different drugs . In court papers , Baich asked the justices to take up the case to `` revisit Baze v. Rees because the lethal injection landscape has changed significantly in the last seven years . '' `` The time is right for the court to take a careful look at this important issue , '' Baich said . Oklahoma uses an intravenous injection of midazolam meant to cause unconsciousness , followed by rocuronium bromide , which works as a paralytic , and then potassium chloride that serves as a heart-stopping agent . Critics of Oklahoma 's protocol say that the first drug , midazolam , is not FDA approved as a general anesthetic . They say midazolam fails to maintain unconsciousness . Florida , Oklahoma , Alabama and Virginia use the same three-drug protocol that includes midazolam , according to Megan McCracken , a death penalty expert at U.C . Berkeley 's Boalt Hall School of Law . Other states such as Ohio and Arizona have used the drug in a two-drug combination . Ohio recently abandoned the use Midazolam after the execution of Dennis McGuire . `` What 's at issue here is the use of midazolam and whether it is at all appropriate for execution , '' said McCracken . `` There have only been three executions where the prisoner was not paralyzed after the administration of mid and all three went horribly awry , raising serious concerns about the drug and whether it allow humane execution , '' she said .
The high court will review Oklahoma 's lethal injection procedure . The case stems from the execution of an inmate last year . Oklahoma has defended the procedure .