The scheduled executions of two Arkansas death row inmates were halted after that state's Supreme Court granted stays Monday afternoon, effectively delaying the state's plan to execute the men by lethal injection before supplies of a key drug expire.
Don Davis had been given his last meal Monday evening, with the USA high court decision to leave a state court's stay of execution in place coming as the minutes ticked toward 1 a.m. ET (midnight Central Time) when the execution warrant was to expire.
The attorney for Davis and Ward requested stays of execution until the US Supreme Court rules on an upcoming case concerning inmate access to independent mental health experts.
The Arkansas Supreme Court also granted a stay of execution for Ward on Friday (April 14).
Late Monday, the Arkansas Supreme Court also overturned a temporary restraining order, issued by a state judge, that prevented Arkansas from using vecuronium bromide it had purchased from McKesson Medical-Surgical in executions.
The effort to proceed with the execution was headed by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who went to the US Supreme Court after the Arkansas Supreme Court imposed a stay.
Scholl told us the Arkansas debate about rushed executions ahead of the deadline for the drugs used in the lethal injection could open the door to new legal challenges in Tennessee and across the country. "(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". But prosecutors surmounted a major roadblock earlier Monday when the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a district court judge's ruling to stay all of the executions.
Preparations continue at the death chamber inside the Cummins Prison Unit in rural Gould, Arkansas, where the first two executions are scheduled for Monday evening.
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The court, in a 4-3 decision, stayed the executions for Don Davis and Bruce Ward while the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a separate case concerning access to independent mental health experts by defendants. Despite the secrecy measure, prison officials have said it will be very hard to find a supplier willing to sell Arkansas midazolam after its current stock expires. Both men's lawyer argued neither was mentally fit to face the death penalty and that their executions should be postponed until the U.S. Supreme Court decides on McWilliams v. Dunn, for which oral arguments are scheduled to begin next week.
Arkansas had planned eight executions before the end of April, when its midazolam supply expires.
Among the decisions the state is appealing is one from a federal judge who on Saturday halted all of the executions so the inmates could pursue claims their deaths could be especially painful.
The high court's decision came after the state filed an emergency petition asking to have Judge Griffen removed from the case, saying his behavior "makes it crystal clear that he can not be considered impartial in matters related to the death penalty".
The Arkansas high court already had issued one stay for Ward after a Jefferson County judge said she didn't have the authority to halt Ward's execution.
In ruling for the inmates early Saturday morning, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker found they offered multiple available alternative execution methods. Justices reassigned any death penalty cases from Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen, who banned the state from using the vecuronium bromide obtained. After issuing the order, Griffen participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration where he was strapped to a cot.
Attorneys for Ward have described him in court filings as a diagnosed schizophrenic who spent decades in solitary without treatment for his mental illness and argued that he was not competent to be executed. The court directed that Griffen be referred to the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission to determine whether he violated ethical requirements.
DeMillo reported from Little Rock.
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