LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Eighteen condemned inmates say in new court filings
that the executions of four men in Arkansas last year exposed problems that
should render the state’s lethal injection procedure unconstitutional.
Citing witness accounts of what happened in the execution chamber, the
inmates’ lawyers say it was never clear whether the Arkansas Department of
Correction followed its guidelines. They said there was no way to tell when each
drug was administered and that it wasn’t clear an attendant performed proper
consciousness checks on each inmate.
Arkansas uses midazolam to sedate inmates at the start of its executions. The
lawyers said late Monday it would be unconstitutionally cruel to subsequently
shut down an inmate’s lungs and heart if the prisoner was conscious.
Arkansas’ attorney general said the inmates were trying to delay justice.
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