Arkansas death row inmate faces execution after injunction lifted [View all]
Last edited Thu Apr 20, 2017, 11:52 PM - Edit history (3)
Source: The Guardian
Arkansas is preparing its death chamber for a possible execution Thursday night after the state supreme court lifted a temporary injunction blocking its use of a medical drug that a US healthcare giant had been duped out of under false pretences.
The states top court sided with the Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge and overturned an earlier lower court ruling that had imposed an injunction that had stymied any executions from going ahead. The ruling in effect allows the state to resume its highly contentious plan for a spate of quick-fire executions before its batch of the sedative midazolam expires at the end of the month.
Two executions are scheduled for Thursday night. One of them, Stacey Johnson, remains on hold after the state supreme court agreed with his lawyers that he should have the chance for DNA testing on crime-scene materials that would either prove his innocence or confirm his guilt.
But the life of Ledell Lee, the second prisoner facing an execution on Thursday, now hangs in the balance. His only chance to avoid being placed on a gurney and injected with three deadly chemicals, some time after 7pm, now rests with the US supreme court, to which he will appeal at the eleventh hour.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/20/arkansas-executions-resume-ledell-lee
Ed Pilkington in New York
Thursday 20 April 2017 23.17 BST
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Update: Arkansas execution delayed by Supreme Court; state abandons second planned lethal injection
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