Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas’ attorney general has asked Gov. Asa Hutchinson to set execution dates for eight death row inmates in what would be the state’s first executions in a decade.
A spokesman for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge confirmed Tuesday that the request was made. A spokesman for Hutchinson said the governor did not have an immediate timeline for when he would set the dates.
The Arkansas Department of Correction purchased enough of the three-drug combination used in the state’s new execution protocol in late July to perform the executions. A state law passed this year lets the department buy the drugs secretly, as in other states.
Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2005 because the state’s execution law had been challenged in court.