Is Arkansas really going to carry out seven (uneventful?) executions over the next two weeks?
The question in the title of this post is a slight variation on a question a student posed to me yesterday, and I really did not have a confident prediction. But these two new pieces discussing Arkansas’s plans highlight that others are feeling somewhat more confident about what lies ahead in the Natural State:
From the Arkansas News, “Arkansas governor confident executions will go smoothly“
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Thursday said he is confident the state Department of Correction can successfully carry out seven executions over an 11-day span starting Monday and defended his decision to set the unprecedented schedule.
In a news conference at the Governor’s Mansion, Hutchinson also expressed confidence in the ability of the sedative midazolam to render the inmates unconscious and said he retains the option to halt any of the executions but does not expect to do so.
The governor told reporters he paid a visit Wednesday to the Department of Correction’s execution chamber in Lincoln County and was satisfied the staff can carry out the plan successfully. Arkansas last executed an inmate in 2005. “I’m not going to go into which staff is doing what at the Department of Correction, but as I was there yesterday, they are experienced, they work on it, they practice it, they don’t take it lightly,” he said. “They know what they’re doing.”
The plan has drawn international attention and has been criticized by groups and individuals who have called it an “assembly line” and a “train wreck.”
From the Washington Post, “Arkansas plans to execute 7 men in 11 days. They’re likely to botch one.”
On April 17, Arkansas is scheduled to execute seven men over a period of 11 days. If carried out, that will be the most executions performed in such a short time since the modern death-penalty era began in 1976.
The reason: Arkansas’ supply of the controversial drug it is using for executions, midazolam, is set to expire April 30. Midazolam is medically used as an anti-anxiety sedative, not an anesthetic. Experts have concerns about the drug’s ability to render a person fully unconscious, heightening the risk of an unconstitutionally cruel punishment. The lawyers defending the men scheduled for death are arguing that the short time will limit their ability to provide effective counsel and that the execution team will be so stressed that they will probably make mistakes.
UPDATE: There have been consequential legal developments in Arkansas since I authored this post roughly 24 hours ago. This local article provides the highlights in its opening paragraphs:
A federal judge issued an injunction early Saturday to halt the executions of several condemned Arkansas inmates, creating another barrier to the state’s plan to put them to death over an 11-day period starting Monday.
The Arkansas Attorney General’s office called the decision “unfortunate” and filed a notice of appeal with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ruling came a day after the Arkansas Supreme Court first issued an emergency stay blocking Bruce Ward’s execution. That order didn’t affect the other 6 condemned men, but Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen ruled a short time later that a separate complaint filed by a medical supplier was cause to issue a temporary restraining order blocking all the executions. The state Attorney General, though, on Saturday asked the state Supreme Court to reverse Griffen and to remove him from the case.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker’s ruling, issued shortly after 6 a.m., applies to all of the scheduled executions. Click here to read the full order .
Baker wrote that “there is a significant possibility that plaintiffs will succeed on the merits of their Eighth Amendment challenge to Arkansas’s lethal injection protocol.”