Arkansas says it has no options if inmates delay executions

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Arkansas says it has no options if inmates delay executions
Kelly P. Kissel, Associated Press

Updated 3:55 pm, Monday, April 3, 2017



LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Lawyers for the state of Arkansas are telling a federal court that delaying eight executions beyond April 30 would have the same effect as canceling them altogether.

Arkansas recently replaced an outdated potassium chloride supply, but in court papers Monday says it has no source for midazolam after its current stock expires at the end of the month.

To meet the deadline, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has scheduled eight executions in a 10-day period beginning April 17. No state has executed that many people in so short a time since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the death penalty in 1976.

Arkansas has not executed a prisoner since 2005 because of legal challenges and drug shortages.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Arkansas-says-it-has-no-options-if-inmates-delay-11047198.php

[redwitch]

1. Poor Arkansas!

When I read they were planning 8 executions in 10 days I felt hopeless. I hope the lawyers can actually stop the madness.

[mwooldri]

2. No options?

Whatever happened to "life without parole"?

Now there's a thought. I thoughts the governor was pro-life too.

[lastlib]

3. I hope this is leading to the end of this barbaric practice.

I really don't believe that the State should have the power to take life.

[KingCharlemagne]

4. One of the most poorly written headlines I have ever read. As if inmates

can delay executions. Jesus!

[Igel]

5. What lawyers do is for hire.

I hire somebody to write a book for me, it's mine. I own copyright.


I hire a lawyer to get something blocked, it's mine. I own the consequences. When a defendant wins a suit, he's won; we don't say, "The defendant hasn't won his case, but the lawyer certainly has." We may compliment the lawyer, but ultimately he's an agent and cannot act contrary to the dictates of his employer.


Note that we play the same game in politics and business. If a person we like has employees that act out, well, it's on the employees and it's their fault; if a person we don't like has employees that act out, well, it's really the employer's responsibility so you can't hold the minions and peons responsible. (In short, we excuse those on whose side we are and demonize those on the other side. Same old, same old.)

[KingCharlemagne]

8. Sigh Inmates do not and cannot 'delay' their executions (or much of anything of

substance), as they are wards of the state. Courts can and do delay executions.

[Demit]

6. They are the plaintiffs in a suit. If the court finds for them, they will have delayed

their executions.

[KingCharlemagne]

7. Oh, please. You are stretching ingenuity to its limits. The courts will have

delayed their executions. Inmate have relatively little or no agency in this matter.

[Demit]

9. And you are straining to make a distinction without a difference.

[LanternWaste]

10. Stretching ingenuity on one hand, dogmatic and arbitrary creativity on the other.

Stretching ingenuity on one hand, dogmatic and arbitrary creativity on the other. Though I imagine a distinction lacking a relevant difference will be quickly constructed.

I too pretend my inferences are absolute and without error. We're humans... it's our default position.