LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – A disciplinary panel has filed ethics charges against six Arkansas Supreme Court justices over their decision to prohibit a judge who participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration from handling any execution-related cases.
A Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission panel filed charges against the justices on Thursday over their handling of the case involving Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, who was photographed lying on a cot outside the governor’s mansion the same day he blocked Arkansas from using an execution drug last year.
A complaint against a seventh justice is still
pending.
The panel said the court never gave Griffen notice or an opportunity to beheard over his removal from death penalty cases.
The case against the justices now goes to the full commission.
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