A Federal judge blocks a group of upcoming executions in Arkansas. The governor planned to execute eight inmates in ten days because one of the drugs used in executions was going to expire.
Federal Judge Blocks Arkansas Executions
In a 101-page order on Saturday, Judge Baker embraced arguments by the eight prisoners whose executions had been scheduled, plus one other death row inmate, that Arkansas’s reliance on midazolam, as an execution drug posed a risk to their constitutional rights. The drug is supposed to render a person unconscious and unable to feel pain during a lethal injection.