Judge halts Arkansas plan for 8 executions by end of April

A federal judge is stopping Arkansas’s plan to execute eight inmates before the state’s supply of a lethal injection drug expires at the end of April.

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker on Saturday granted a preliminary injunction to block the planned eight executions the state scheduled before the end of the month, according to the Associated Press.

{mosads}Arkansas’s supply of the lethal injection drug midazolam is expiring at the end of April. Gov. Asa Hutchinson scheduled the executions for before the expiration date. The first two had been set for Monday night.

Lawyers for the inmates challenged the use of midazolam, which was involved in flawed executions elsewhere, as well as the shortened timeframe. Arkansas’s attorneys countered that the lawsuit was a delay tactic.

If Arkansas did execute eight inmates before the end of the month, it would be the most executions in such a short period of time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.