LITTLE ROCK (KFSM) — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attempt by Arkansas inmates to stop their executions over claims that their deaths would be “intolerably painful.”
Nine inmates asked justices to review an Arkansas Supreme Court decision upholding a law that keeps secret the source of lethal injection drugs. Justices handed down decisions in the Arkansas case and several other death row cases nationwide on Tuesday (Feb. 21).
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said she will ask Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to set execution dates for the inmates whose appeals have been exhausted.
The state has not executed an inmate since 2005 because of legal challenges and the difficulty of obtaining execution drugs. One execution drug expired last month and an agency spokesmen said Tuesday it had not acquired additional doses.
There are currently 34 men on death row in Arkansas.
