LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge says she won’t appeal an execution stay set for an inmate whose attorneys say he’s mentally ill. But she says she has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate a stay issued for another inmate, Don Davis, who was scheduled to die Monday night.
An Arkansas Supreme Court stay remains in place for Davis, who was sentenced to die for the death of a woman shot at her home in northwest Arkansas during what appeared to be a robbery.
Rutledge says she won’t appeal the stays issued to Bruce Ward, who has a separate legal challenge over his mental health.
Davis’ death warrant expires at midnight.
Davis came within hours of execution in 2010 before a stay was granted.
The Arkansas Supreme Court lifted an order Monday evening that effectively blocked the state’s plan to execute eight men by the end of the month, but a stay remains in place for two inmates facing executions Monday night.
Justices on Monday granted the state’s motion to lift a Pulaski County judge’s order prohibiting the state from using its supply of vecuronium bromide, one of three drugs used in the lethal injection protocol. A medical supply company said it was misled by the state and that the drug was sold to be used for medical purposes, not executions.
Earlier, the high court reassigned Judge Wendell Griffen’s death-penalty cases after he was photographed at an anti-death penalty rally, lying down on a cot to apparently mimic an inmate’s execution.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says he’s hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court will allow the executions of two inmates to proceed, saying the victims’ families have waited too long for justice.
