ST. LOUIS–(KMOX)–The Missouri Supreme Court rules its “premature” to set execution dates in several death penalty cases — until disputes over the new lethal drug protocol can be resolved.

Among the six cases put on hold — one in which a man with a telescopic rifle opened fire on worshippers leaving a Richmond Heights synagogue in 1977, killing one man; and a 1996 double-murder in which a St. Louis county man stabbed his grandparents over and over, as they came home from church, so he could steal their new car.

The high court order says until questions can be resolved over the new drug Propofol – and whether using the anesthesia in fatal doses is “cruel and unusual punishment” — it’s too soon to set execution dates.

Earlier this year, Mo Attorney General Chris Koster asked the high court to take action on several death penalty cases, after Propofol was adopted and the old three-drug protocol was abandoned.

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