Judge halts Arkansas’ planned executions
Restraining order blocks use of drug used in lethal injection cocktail
An Arkansas judge issued a temporary restraining order late Friday effectively halting the state from executing six men it had planned to put to death this month.
The state was prepared to execute the men in an 11-day span starting Monday, a move that drew strong criticism from opponents of the death penalty who said it was cruel and unusual punishment and increased the likelihood of a botched execution.
The state had initially been prepared to execute eight convicted murderers this month, but recent legal rulings had already halted two executions.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen on Friday issued the restraining order preventing Arkansas from using its supply of vecuronium bromide, a drug used in the state’s lethal injection cocktail.
Griffen’s ruling was in response to a request from a pharmaceutical company, McKesson MedicalSurgical, which argued that its public image would suffer if the state used its drugs in executions.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office said it intends to file an emergency request with the state Supreme Court to vacate the order as soon as possible.
“As a public opponent of capital punishment, Judge Griffen should have recused himself from this case,” Judd Deere, a spokesman for Rutledge, said Friday night.
The executions had been slated to begin Monday, followed by more on April 20, 24 and 27, with two men to die each day.
No state had executed that many individuals in such a short time frame.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson set the execution dates in February after Rutledge determined that the eight men had exhausted their legal challenges.