Judge Blocks Arkansas Plan To Execute 8 Inmates In 11 Days
A federal judge has blocked the state of Arkansas from its plan to execute 8 inmates over the course of 11 days. According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker on Saturday granted a preliminary injunction to block the planned eight executions the state scheduled before the end of April.
Arkansas scheduled the executions because their supply of drugs to carry out the executions is expiring and Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson has said he wants to use the drugs before they spoil.
The manufacturers of the drugs object to states using their drugs in executions, and the states including Arkansas have indicated that they don’t have a way of obtaining more of the sedative midazolam.
In a separate court, another federal judge and the state Supreme Court had previously granted stays to two of the eight inmates.
According to the AP, “If Arkansas had proceeded with its original plan to execute eight inmates in double executions on four days, it would have been the most people put to death by a state in that timeframe since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the death penalty in 1976.”
