LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Supreme Court said Thursday it will give expedited consideration to the state’s appeal of a circuit judge’s ruling that struck down a portion of the state’s lethal injection law.
The court granted the state’s motion to speed up the appeal of Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox’s August ruling that part of the law is unconstitutional.
Fox made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by Jack Harold Jones and several other death-row inmates challenging the way the state puts condemned prisoners to death. Fox said the law gave the director of the state Department of Correction too much discretion in deciding what drugs to use in executions.
The law lists three types of chemicals that may be used in executions and says the director may also use “any other chemical or chemicals.” The inmates allege that the law violates the separation-of-powers clause of the state constitution by taking too much authority over execution policies away from the Legislature and giving it to the Department of Correction.
The lawsuit also alleges that the use of drugs not approved by the federal government, such as sodium thiopental which the Department of Correction obtained from a British company, could expose inmates to unnecessary pain and suffering during executions.
The Department of Correction handed over its supply of sodium thiopental to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in July, after questions were raised about how the drug was imported.
Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2005. Because of stays imposed by the state Supreme Court, no executions are pending in the state.