Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A judge is set to consider arguments on Arkansas’ request to dismiss a lawsuit from death row inmates challenging the state’s secrecy law surrounding its execution drugs.
The case before Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen on Wednesday comes two weeks before the first executions scheduled in Arkansas in nearly a decade.
An attorney for the inmates has argued that the secrecy law violates a settlement agreement from a previous lawsuit. The state argues that the secrecy law is constitutional, and that the previous settlement agreement did not amount to a current contract with the inmates.
Last month, The Associated Press identified the three pharmaceutical companies that likely made Arkansas’ execution drugs. The companies all said they object to their drugs being used in executions.