Lawsuit renews fight over Arkansas executions
Inmates’ case against secrecy surrounding lethal injection drugs is likely to focus on midazolam, a sedative.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A federal lawsuit filed by death row inmates has renewed a court fight over whether the sedative Arkansas uses for lethal injections causes torturous executions, two years after the state raced to put eight convicted killers to death in 11 days before a previous batch of the drug expired.
Arkansas recently expanded the secrecy surrounding its lethal injection drug sources, and the case heading to trial Tuesday could affect its efforts to restart executions that have been on hold because of a lack of the drugs. It’ll also be the latest in a series of legal battles over midazolam, a sedative that other states have moved away from using amid claims it doesn’t render inmates fully unconscious during lethal injections.
States that want to avoid unnecessarily inhumane executions will be watching closely, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which has criticized the way states carry out the death penalty.
But, Dunham added, “states that are watching because they want to figure out how to just execute people will be looking to see what Arkansas is able to get away with.”
Only four of the eight executions scheduled in Arkansas over 11 days in 2017 actually happened, with courts halting the others. The state currently doesn’t have any executions scheduled, and Arkansas’ supply of the three drugs used in its lethal injection process has expired. Another round of multiple executions is unlikely, since only one death row inmate has exhausted all his appeals.
This time, Arkansas isn’t racing against the clock to execute inmates before a drug expires. The state currently doesn’t have any execution drugs available, but officials believe they’ll be able to get more once the secrecy law takes effect this summer.
State Atty. Gen. Leslie Rutledge says the inmates in the case have a very high burden to meet and cites a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month against a Missouri death row inmate. Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, wrote that the U.S. Constitution “does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death.” Rutledge called the federal case in Arkansas the latest attempt by death row inmates to delay their sentences from being carried out.
“Juries gave these individuals lawful sentences for committing the most heinous acts against a human being, taking another human being’s innocent life,” Rutledge, a Republican, said. “We must see these sentences carried out. The families of these victims deserve justice.”
Thirty states have the death penalty. Governors in four of them — Oregon, Colorado, Pennsylvania and California — have declared moratoriums, and court rulings have effectively put executions on hold in several others. The list of death penalty states is poised to shrink, though, with New Hampshire lawmakers sending the governor a repeal measure. Bills to repeal or significantly curtail the death penalty have been introduced in 18 states this year, Dunham said.
Much of the trial over Arkansas’ process will focus on midazolam, which critics have said doesn’t render inmates fully unconscious before the other lethal injection drugs are administered.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld midazolam’s use in executions in 2015, but its use continues to prompt legal challenges nationwide.