Alabama and twelve other states on Wednesday filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the three-drug combination being used by Oklahoma to execute inmates.

Lethal injection executions in Alabama and a number of other states have been put on hold pending the outcome of an Oklahoma case before the Supreme Court.

"These killers have raped and murdered children and stabbed prison guards to death. It is outrageous for them to argue that lethal injection has too high a risk of pain to be a constitutional method of execution. It is better than they deserve," Alabama Attorney General Strange, whose office joined in the brief, stated in a press release.

The amicus - or friend of the court - brief was filed in the Oklahoma case of Glossip v Gross. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case April 29 and is expected to rule in June.

The states' brief calls on the Supreme Court "to close the litigation floodgates" that "have ground executions to a halt in many states" by affirming "the constitutionality of Oklahoma's three-drug protocol."

Alabama and the other twelve states argue that the three-drug lethal injection protocol used by Oklahoma complies with the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, the press release states. It explains that states have adopted the protocol because of their inability to acquire other drugs and that Florida has used the protocol for 11 executions that were humane and successful.

Alabama and the other states state in the brief that offenders have repeatedly used court challenges of certain lethal injection drugs as ways to delay or avoid lawful executions, according to the press release. "There is no execution method or drug protocol that the states can adopt to stanch the flood of litigation, unless this Court strictly requires plaintiffs to identify a readily available alternative to the state's method of execution,"

The states joining Alabama in the amicus brief are Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.