Arkansas fights on multiple legal fronts over executions
LITTLE ROCK: Lawyers for the state of Arkansas faced fights on multiple legal fronts yesterday to begin a series of double executions before a key sedative used in lethal injections expires at the end of the month. Bruce Earl Ward and Don William Davis Jr had been scheduled to die yesterday night, the first of four double executions set by Gov Asa Hutchinson for an 11-day period. A federal judge issued stays for each of the inmates Saturday and a state court judge on Friday blocked prison officials from using a paralyzing drug until he could determine whether Arkansas obtained it properly.
Arkansas appealed in those cases and also hoped to dissolve a separate stay for Ward that had been issued by the Arkansas Supreme Court. In a victory for the state Sunday, a federal judge in western Arkansas denied a stay request by Davis. Even with the stays in place and questions remaining before a number of courts, executions are still possible. The US Supreme Court could be asked to tackle a number of questions before the end of the day and, depending on those answers, Ward could walk to the death chamber at Varner for a 7 pm execution.
“Immediate reversal is warranted,” Arkansas’ solicitor general, Lee Rudofsky, wrote Saturday to the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals in St Louis. “(D)elaying Appellees’ executions by even a few days - until Arkansas’s supply of midazolam expires - will make it impossible for Arkansas to carry out Appellees’ just and lawful sentences.” At a federal court hearing last week, prison officials testified that they have no new source for the sedative, which is intended to mask the effects of drugs that will shut down the inmates’ lungs and hearts.
The inmates say midazolam is unsuitable as an execution drug, saying it is not a painkiller and could subject them to a cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the US Constitution. If they aren’t knocked out sufficiently, they would be able to feel the pain of their lungs and hearts stopping, they say. In state court on Friday, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen blocked the state from using its supply of vecuronium bromide after a distributor complained prison officials used false pretenses to obtain it. The drug prevents the diaphragm from moving, essentially suffocating the prisoners.