[JURIST] The Arkansas Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday stayed [opinion, PDF] the execution of eight men until March, halting the state’s attempt to resume executions in the state after a 10-year hiatus. In issuing its stay, the court overturned a ruling of a circuit judge who also stayed the execution of the eight men, saying that the judge overstepped his authority in issuing the order. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen [official profile] had issued the order [JURIST report] on October 9, ordering the state to release information about the suppliers of its lethal injection drugs to attorneys of death row inmates challenging the state’s execution secrecy law. The eight inmates were scheduled to be executed between October 21 and January 14. After Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, the court decided Griffen could not issue the order, stating, “Pursuant to statute, the only officers who have the power of suspending the execution of a judgment of death are: (1) the governor; (2) the director of the Department of Correction in cases of insanity or pregnancy of the individual; and (3) the clerk of the Supreme Court in cases of appeals.” The prisoners are now entitled to a hearing in which they will attempt to prove that a state law that conceals drug suppliers’ identities conflicts with a settlement in an earlier case in which the state agreed to provide the information. The Supreme Court also noted that their arguments constitute “bona fide constitutional claims.”

Use of the death penalty [JURIST news archive] has been a controversial issue throughout the US and internationally. Last week UN human rights experts condemned Iran’s execution [JURIST report] of a juvenile offender convicted of murdering her husband whom she was forced to marry at the age of 16. Earlier this month the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously granted [JURIST report] a request from Attorney General Scott Pruitt to halt all of the state’s scheduled executions to allow for an investigation into why the prison received incorrect lethal injection drugs. Oklahoma became the epicenter [JURIST report] of the lethal injection drug debate last year after the death of Clayton Lockett, a death row inmate who died of an apparent heart attack minutes after doctors called off a failed attempt to execute him. In May Nebraska lawmakers overrode [JURIST report] Governor Pete Ricketts’ veto on repealing the death penalty. In April the Tennessee Supreme Court postponed the execution [JURIST report] of four inmates on death row while it determines whether current protocols are constitutional, effectively halting all executions in the state.