Arkansas execution drug challenge survives

wireready_07-13-2017-10-04-02_08975_death_penalty
(AP) – A medical supply company’s challenge to Arkansas’
three-drug execution protocol remains alive, though the state doesn’t have
enough drugs to put any inmate to death.The state’s lawyers went to court Wednesday to argue that Arkansas was immune
to a lawsuit by McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc. They said lawsuits against the
state aren’t valid unless Arkansas is committing egregious acts.

McKesson doesn’t want Arkansas to use its vecuronium bromide in the execution
chamber. The company won a preliminary injunction in April, but the Arkansas
Supreme Court set the order aside and let the drug be used in four executions
that month. Circuit Judge Alice Gray on Wednesday rejected the state’s attempt
to dismiss the lawsuit.

Arkansas also wants Gray to transfer the case to a court outside of Little
Rock. Gray said she will decide that request later. The judge also turned down
McKesson’s attempt to delay work on the case until the state Supreme Court
settles the sovereign immunity question.

Arkansas currently has only two of the three drugs it needs to put inmates to death.

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