Drug Maker Moves to Drop its own Lawsuit Halting Executions

The state reacted to her decision by filing federal court appeals Saturday. That same evening, Griffen agreed and issued the temporary restraining order.

The Department of Corrections had declined to comment on McKesson's statements earlier Friday, and a spokesman declined Friday evening to comment on Griffen's order because of pending litigation in the case.

The Arkansas Parole Board had earlier voted to recommend that McGehee's death sentence be commuted to life without parole, and the judge ruled McGehee's April 27 execution date would not have given the board enough time, as required by law, to notify the governor of its recommendation.

Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said he would meet with the state's lawyers and its prison officials on Monday (April 17) to review how the state will handle the seven prisoner executions.

Protesters gather outside the state Capitol building on Friday, April 14, 2017, in Little Rock, Ark., to voice their opposition to Arkansas' seven upcoming executions.

"It is past time for the victims' families to see justice for the disgusting murders of their loved ones", Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said Saturday.

Now, McAndrew is fighting against the death penalty. The state had hoped to use up its supply of a lethal injection cocktail before it expired at the end of the month. After that, officials say finding a supplier willing to allow the drug to be used to kill someone will be exceptionally hard. It objects to its use in executions. In a separate case Friday, a state judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the state from using a paralyzing drug, vecuronium bromide, made by a company that claims Arkansas obtained it under false pretenses. She said the prisoners were entitled to challenge the execution method on grounds it "creates a demonstrated risk of severe pain". While she wrote that it was "certainly conceivable" that a rush of executions would be more risky, she concluded that there "is no way to determine what level of stress makes the risk of mistake "objectively intolerable'". Plans by the state to execute several inmates in rapid succession have been blocked by the courts. On Saturday morning, a federal judge followed suit, issuing a preliminary order staying the executions in response to a lawsuit mounted by the death-row inmates.

Griffen's order effectively halts the executions, which had dropped to six after the state Supreme Court blocked one execution Friday and a federal judge halting another last week, unless it's reversed or the state finds a new supply of the drug.

"The threat of irreparable harm to the plaintiffs is significant: If midazolam does not adequately anesthetize plaintiffs, or if their executions are 'botched, ' they will suffer severe pain before they die", Judge Baker, an appointee of President Barack Obama, wrote. "Attorney General Rutledge intends to file an emergency request with the Arkansas Supreme Court to vacate the order as soon as possible".

"None of the claims asserted by McKesson, nor any statute or common-law theory, support McKesson's apparent belief that a person who purchases a product must use that product in a certain way as dictated by the seller after the transaction or return the product on demand by the seller", Rutledge said. However, Saturday afternoon, the company filed a motion with the state Supreme Court to dismiss the case because Baker had put a hold on the executions.

A representative for the McKesson company could not be reached Saturday.

John C. Williams, assistant Federal Public Defender and attorney for some of the death row prisoners, praised the federal court ruling and called on the state to "cancel the frantic execution schedule and propose a legal and humane method to carry out its executions".

In a statement he said he expected all of the last month's clemency hearings and court cases to be tough on the victim's families, calling it "all part of a hard process". That appeal goes to the 8th Circuit in St. Louis.