Since the Supreme Court ruled to reinstate the death penalty in 1973, the 31 USA states that have the death penalty have carried out 1,448 executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The state's supply of that drug expires April 30.
The execution came after a frenzied day of appeals before the US Supreme Court finally ruled to allow Arkansas to proceed, hours before Lee's death warrant was due to expire.
The court denied an appeal from Ledell Lee, the other inmate scheduled for execution on Thursday - but his execution, along with all the others on the calendar, is still blocked by a second court ruling.
Another issue is Arkansas' use of midazolam, a sedative administered as part of a three-drug execution cocktail.
Lee, 51, was put on death row for the 1993 killing of his neighbor Debra Reese, who prosecutors said Lee struck 36 times with a tire tool her husband had given her for protection.
The plan had run into extensive litigation in state and federal courts, where judges have halted half of the scheduled executions.
Steven Mazie of The Economist tweeted on April 20: "After #SCOTUS cleared the way, Arkansas just executed Ledell Lee, a man claiming innocence whose lawyer was drunk during his trial".
There are no signs that the U.S. Supreme Court is inclined to tackle the broader question of whether the death penalty is unconstitutional under the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
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The Arkansas Department of Corrections confirmed that Lee was executed by lethal injection at 11:56 p.m.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, whose lawyers are representing the Correction Department, appealed immediately to the state Supreme Court, asking that Gray's order be canceled.
"When I set the dates, I knew there could be delays in one or more of the cases", Hutchinson said, "but I expected the courts to allow the juries' sentences to be carried out since each case has been reviewed multiple times by the Arkansas Supreme Court, which affirmed the guilt of each". No one from the state would say why they wanted the lawsuit removed from Pulaski County or why they preferred to have the case heard in Faulkner County Circuit Court.
One of the drugs in the Arkansas mix, midazolam, had been used in flawed executions in Oklahoma and Arizona, where witnesses said the inmates appeared to twist in pain on death chamber trolleys. Without the drug, the state couldn't carry out any executions.
The midazolam is hard to track down the chain of distribution, however, and state prisons do have legitimate reasons for buying it other than execution, including for normal health care purposes, such as minor surgery. At least one high court justice expressed reservations about the state's push to execute the inmates before its drug expired.
But after the resumption of the death penalty on Thursday, Hutchinson's spokesman J.R. Davis said: "Justice was carried out". "That factor, when considered as a determining factor separating those who live from those who die, is close to random".
Vecuronium bromide halts an inmate's breathing.
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