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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