Arkansas Execution On Hold Due to Fight Over Lethal Injections

He wrote that the inmates’ allegations that the lethal injection procedure posed a substantial enough risk of causing them unnecessary pain and suffering included enough facts about the drugs used to move forward with their claim. Legal and political battles over death chamber procedures and stays of executions for other inmates have been the main reasons why the state has not carried out an execution since 2005.

The request for a preliminary injunction that would block the October 21 execution was filed earlier this week in Jefferson County Circuit Court. Cathy Frye, a spokeswoman for the Department of Correction said she could not comment on ongoing litigation.

According to affidavits and attorney statements contained in the filing, Ward has repeatedly told attorneys and prison staff that God will not let the execution happen and that a life sentence is an offer from Satan. “I will continue to fight for the victims of these murders and their grieving families”, Rutledge said. States like Arkansas have passed secrecy laws to shield information about the source of the drugs, ostensibly to protect the identities of the pharmacies that make them.

“Proceeding with plaintiffs’ executions as scheduled…will rob plaintiffs of an opportunity to litigate their rights under the Arkansas Constitution”, Griffen said in his order.

A flawed execution a year ago in neighboring Oklahoma followed by an execution there last month being called off after the wrong drug was delivered to the death chamber have raised further questions about lethal injections.

A court filing Thursday draws attention to the case of Oklahoma inmate Charles Warner, who was executed in January.