LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Five Arkansas Supreme Court justices are challenging
efforts to sanction them over the court’s decision to disqualify a judge who
participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration from hearing any
execution-related cases.
The justices filed a lawsuit challenging the charges related to the court’s
decision to prohibit Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen from handling
any death penalty cases. Justices disqualified Griffen after he was photographed
strapped to a cot outside the governor’s mansion the same day he prevented
Arkansas from using a lethal injection drug last year.
A Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission panel says the court never
gave Griffen notice or an opportunity to be heard over his removal from death
penalty cases.
The lawsuit says the commission doesn’t have jurisdiction over the court’s
order disqualifying Griffen.
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