April 17, 2017
5:15 p.m.
A federal appeals court (click here) has cleared one legal obstacle Arkansas faces in its plan to execute several inmates.
The state still must overcome other court orders blocking the inmates’ executions if it is to carry out any of the lethal injections it had scheduled for the last two weeks of April.
The federal appeals court on Monday overturned a judge’s order halting the executions over concerns about one of the lethal injection drugs to be used.
The decision came even as the Arkansas Supreme Court was issuing an order halting two executions set for Monday. That order remains in place.
Arkansas had scheduled the executions to occur before the state’s supply of midazolam expires at the end of April. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker halted the executions over the use of the drug, which has been used in flawed executions in other states, and over the inmates’ access to attorneys on the day of the executions....
Midazolam is proven not to be reliable in executions. It is very short acting and that is the pitfall with this drug.
