State plans to begin 'conveyor belt' of death row executions TONIGHT - despite court rulings
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A US state is planning to begin a 'conveyor belt' of death row executions tonight - despite court rulings that temporarily halted the lethal injections of eight inmates.
The orders, made by various federal and state judges, barred Arkansas, in the US, from carrying out the executions, including two planned for this evening.
But the state is hoping to win last-minute reversals of the decisions for convicted murderers Don Davis and Bruce Ward, and is still preparing for the executions to go ahead, prison spokesman Solomon Graves told reporters today.
Each man facing the lethal injection has spent more than 20 years on death row.
Arkansas, which has not held an execution in 12 years, had planned to execute eight inmates over 11 days, the most of any state in that short a time since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
(Photo: Splash News)
(Photo: Splash News)
(Photo: Reuters)
The state had set the expedited schedule because one of the drugs in its lethal injection mix, the sedative midazolam, expires at the end of April.
But critics have said rushing inmates to the death chamber is reckless and unconstitutional.
If carried out, tonight's back-to-back executions will begin at 6pm Arkansas time, and 11pm GMT, at the state's Cummins Unit in Grady, a small town about 75 miles southeast of Little Rock, the state's capital.
But rulings by four judges have put the brakes on the Arkansas plan, which has drawn challenges from inmates and from
drug companies claiming the prison system deceived them over procurement.
(Photo: Splash News)
(Photo: Splash News)
On April 6, US District Judge J.P. Marshall halted one of the eight executions, saying the expedited schedule did not allow proper time for considering clemency for inmate Jason McGehee. The state has not appealed that decision.
On Friday, the Arkansas Supreme Court halted Ward's execution after lawyers for the inmate argued he was mentally incompetent. The state has appealed this decision.
Also on Friday, a state judge issued a temporary restraining order barring the state from administering one of three drugs it planned to use, vercuronium bromide.
(Photo: Splash News)
(Photo: Splash News)
On Saturday, US District Judge Kristine Baker granted a temporary injunction for all eight inmates that halted their
executions on grounds including that the state's protocols violate US constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
The state has appealed this decision.
Baker also found that the state would deprive the inmates of adequate counsel because prison officials allow only a single lawyer to be present for any execution.
If the attorney had to rush out to file an emergency petition, it would deprive the inmate of a lawyer to witness the execution, Baker said.