State and Federal Courts Grant Stays, Preliminary Injunctions Blocking 8 Arkansas Executions

In legal chal­lenges filed sep­a­rate­ly by Arkansas death-row pris­on­ers and a com­pa­ny involved in the dis­tri­b­u­tion of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, the Arkansas state and fed­er­al courts issued pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tions putting on hold the state’s plan to car­ry out an unprece­dent­ed eight exe­cu­tions in the span of eleven days. 

After a four-day evi­den­tiary hear­ing that end­ed late in the evening on Thursday, April 13, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas issued a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion bar­ring Arkansas from car­ry­ing out the eight sched­uled exe­cu­tions with a three-drug cock­tail of mida­zo­lam, vecuro­ni­um bro­mide, and potas­si­um chlo­ride. The District Court issued its opin­ion and order ear­ly Saturday, April 15, find­ing ​“a sig­nif­i­cant pos­si­bil­i­ty” that the pris­on­ers’ chal­lenge to the lethal injec­tion pro­to­col will suc­ceed and that Arkansas’ exe­cu­tion plan denies the pris­on­ers mean­ing­ful access to coun­sel and to the courts dur­ing the course of the executions themselves. 

In grant­i­ng the pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion, Judge Kristine G. Baker wrote, ​“The threat of irrepara­ble harm to the plain­tiffs is sig­nif­i­cant: If mida­zo­lam does not ade­quate­ly anes­thetize plain­tiffs, or if their exe­cu­tions are ​‘botched,’ they will suf­fer severe pain before they die.” The rul­ing came a week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion grant­ed by an Ohio fed­er­al dis­trict court bar­ring that state from using mida­zo­lam in a three-drug exe­cu­tion process. Arkansas has appealed the deci­sion to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

In anoth­er law­suit filed in state court by McKesson, the com­pa­ny that dis­trib­uted vecuro­ni­um bro­mide to the Arkansas Department of Corrections, an Arkansas cir­cuit judge issued an order in the late after­noon on Friday, April 14, tem­porar­i­ly block­ing the state from using the drug. McKesson had filed a com­plaint alleg­ing that Arkansas mis­led them about the intend­ed use of the drug and refused to return it even after being issued a refund. Arkansas appealed the court’s order, but after the fed­er­al injunc­tion was issued, McKesson asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to vacate the state-court order because it would not be nec­es­sary as long as the fed­er­al injunc­tion is in place.

Two pris­on­ers sep­a­rate­ly received indi­vid­ual stays of exe­cu­tion. The Arkansas Supreme Court stayed the exe­cu­tion of Bruce Ward, sched­uled for April 17, to allow con­sid­er­a­tion of his claim that he is incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed. A fed­er­al dis­trict court stayed the exe­cu­tion of Jason McGehee, sched­uled for April 27, to com­ply with the required 30-day pub­lic com­ment peri­od after the Arkansas Parole Board’s 6 – 1 rec­om­men­da­tion for clemen­cy. [UPDATE: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8^th Circuit reversed the District Court’s rul­ing stay­ing the Arkansas exe­cu­tions based upon its use of mida­zo­lam and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the issue. The Arkansas Supreme Court lift­ed the tem­po­rary restrain­ing order against the state’s use of med­i­cines obtained from the McKessen Corporation to car­ry out exe­cu­tions.]