Just days after a split Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the state’s execution protocol, Arkansas’ supply of vecuronium bromide—a paralytic agent used in the state’s three-drug lethal injection protocol—expired, leaving the status of future executions unclear. At that time, Governor Asa Hutchinson said that he wanted the Department of Correction to obtain a new supply of the drug rather than change the state’s method of execution. In 2015, the state spent $25,000 for lethal injection drugs and set eight execution dates. Death row prisoners challenged the state’s execution protocol and secrecy law, which they say violated the settlement in a challenge to an earlier protocol. The new litigation, which raised critical questions about whether the new protocol might result in an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual execution, took nearly a year to resolve, ending just before the June 30 expiration date of the execution drugs. Because every major manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in the U.S. opposes the use of their products in executions, Governor Hutchinson said it is “unknown” whether Arkansas will be able to obtain a new supply of the drugs. He again expressed hesitation at the idea of changing the state’s lethal injection protocol, saying, “You don’t want to deviate from what’s already been tested and approved[;] otherwise you’re starting all over again.” The Arkansas Department of Correction would not disclose what efforts it has made to obtain new execution drugs. The state last carried out an execution in 2005.

(D. Petrimoulx, “Expiring Drugs Leave Questions About AR Death Penalty,” ArkansasMatters.com, June 30, 2016.) See Lethal Injection.

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