Arkansas clears 2 major legal hurdles to execution plan
VARNER (AP) — State and federal courts lifted the two primary obstacles Arkansas faced Monday in its plan to execute eight inmates before the end of April, but the executions of the first two inmates scheduled to die remained in limbo.
The decisions from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court were among a flurry of legal actions that threatened to stop a series of lethal injections that, if carried out, would mark the most inmates put to death by a state in such a short period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
The state Supreme Court had earlier stayed the executions of two men originally scheduled to be put to death Monday night. Separately, a federal appeals court overturned U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker's decision to halt the executions over the use of lethal injection drug midazolam, but the state Supreme Court's rulings remain in place.
"Under our view of the correct legal standard, we cannot agree with the district court that the prisoners have demonstrated a significant possibility of establishing a known and available alternative that would significantly reduce a substantial risk of severe pain," the court said.
A little over an hour later, the state Supreme Court lifted a judge's ruling that had effectively blocked the executions by prohibiting the state from using its supply of vecuronium bromide, one of the other lethal injection drugs. A medical supply company said it was misled by the state and that the drug was sold for medical purposes, not executions.
Earlier Monday afternoon, the state Supreme Court issued a 4-3 decision granting stays for Don Davis and Bruce Ward. The inmates wanted stays of execution while the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a separate case concerning access to independent mental health experts by defendants. The U.S. high court is set to hold oral arguments on April 24.
Three Arkansas justices dissented, with Associate Justice Shawn Womack writing that Ward and Davis "had their day in court, the jury spoke, and decades of appeals have occurred. The families are entitled to closure and finality of the law."
The inmates' attorneys argued that their clients were denied access to independent mental health experts, saying Ward has a lifelong history of severe mental illness and that Davis has an IQ in the range of intellectual disability.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office said she would appeal the state ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rutledge said in a status update with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that she believes the state court's ruling was based on a misinterpretation of federal law.