LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The eight Arkansas inmates scheduled for lethal injection next month are asking a federal judge to block the state's unprecedented plan to conduct four nights of double executions over a 10-day period.
Attorneys for the inmates filed a motion Monday seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent their executions, which are set to begin on April 17.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson scheduled the executions to occur before Arkansas' supply of a controversial sedative expires at the end of April. The sedative, midazolam, is used in the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol and has been used in flawed executions in other states
The inmates argue that the drug and the execution schedule violates their constitutional rights.
Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2005.