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LAWYERS FOR THE state of Arkansas face fights on multiple legal fronts today 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 Monday night, the first of four double executions set by Governor Asa Hutchinson for an 11-day period.
A federal judge issued stays for each of the inmates on Saturday and a state court judge on Friday blocked prison officials from using a paralysing 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 yesterday, 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 tonight. 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 7pm (midnight Irish time) 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.
Griffen scheduled a hearing for Tuesday morning, then joined anti-death penalty protesters outside the governor’s mansion and tied himself to a cot as though he were an inmate on a death chamber gurney.
The company that asked Griffen to act, McKesson Corp., sought to drop its lawsuit after US District Judge Kristine Baker issued her stays on Saturday. It would keep the right to file another lawsuit if Baker’s order is overturned.
A different federal judge has issued a stay for an inmate who won a clemency recommendation from the state’s Parole Board, while the state Supreme Court has issued one for another inmate pending more mental health tests.
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Do all the toe rags end up in spain.
fun in the sun (with a gun) sorry hun for the pun
U ok Hun?
Malaya as in Malaysia ? Off the topic
They can keep her.
Mad how they’re all in Marbella and Porto Banus. Torremolinos amd Benalmadema are now becoming the nicer safer resorts.
All of the Irish trash over in Spain, that’s open borders for you, the Spanish should have stricter border controls and stop Irish Christians going over there and becoming involved in criminality and drug-dealing, if the Irish can’t respect the local laws and customs they should be shipped back to where they came from. Check out this video of Irish Christians bringing their debauched lifestyle to the Costa del Sol in Spain, is this what we want to happen in our country with open borders? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9p7Ur15IdA
That sounds fair enough, dude.
Excellent stuff Dick. Top marks.
Breaking my resolve not to comment but love this from Richard!
Spoh on Richard if Joe Stalin was still around the drug pushing parasites wouldn’t have an easy life he said one time if a man is causing problems in a community the answer is to put that man to sleep, no man no problem, so simple, yet I’m hearing on radio every day where decent people are selling their homes to pay off debt to these parasites and where the gardai tell them there’s nothing they can do to help. Unbelievible, if Michael Collins or any of those men who stood with him were around today they wouldn’t hesitate to put those parasites to sleep and they certainly wouldn’t be cowed by PC
You’re judging your justice on a dead man. The day has changed. The forces who wish to act are constrained by the people who harp on about the past. They elevate the past while living in it and denegrate the present. You can’t have your cake and shit on it at the same time.
Good……work together and get them all. Women incl
There is clearly a cultural problem with the Irish, they are constantly involved violent crimes. Europe should close the borders to the Irish until they learn to adhere to European culture.
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