[JURIST] Arkansas was ordered Monday to release information about the suppliers of its lethal injection drugs to attorneys of death row inmates challenging the state’s execution secrecy law. Executions were temporarily halted [AP report] on Friday by Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen [official profile] for eight inmates that were scheduled to die between October 21 and January 14. In his Monday order, Griffen stated that the state must “identify or otherwise object to disclosure” of the manufacturer, distributor, seller or supplier of the three lethal injection drugs used by the state by October 21. A spokesperson for the office of Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said that she was “considering her options” on how to move forward. The state may submit a request for a protective order for the manufacturer and supplier information if it so chooses. Griffen also scheduled a hearing for March 1 to consider a request by an inmate to make the execution halt permanent under Arkansas’s secrecy laws.

Use of the death penalty [JURIST news archive] has been a controversial issue throughout the US and internationally. 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.