But on Friday, a judge said he was temporarily stopping the executions after inmates scheduled to die in the coming months had argued against the secrecy involved in obtaining execution drugs.
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Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffin handed down the order this afternoon.
Numerous states that have the death penalty have been scrambling for lethal injection chemicals after drug makers in Europe began banning sales to US prison systems about four years ago due to ethical concerns. Ward’s criminal attorneys did not file a request for an executive clemency hearing, and the filing Tuesday cites instances of Ward not understanding or believing that the execution is scheduled to take place.
The inmates are challenging a new Arkansas law that allows the state to withhold any information that could publicly identify the manufacturers or sellers of its execution drugs. In an emailed statement, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge disagreed with it. The Department of Correction didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
A lawyer for the inmates argued that as the efficacy of the drugs could not be vetted, the inmates could suffer pain violating their constitutional rights.
“I am disappointed that the victims’ families have to wait once again while this process is prolonged”, said Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican who has been pushing to resume executions.
Less than two weeks from now Arkansas was planning two executions, its first in a decade. A newly released autopsy report showed that Oklahoma used the wrong drug when it executed inmate Charles Warner in January.
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States have often turned to lightly regulated compounding pharmacies, which can mix chemicals, for their execution drugs.
