Arkansas plans to put eight inmates to death over a 10-day period

LITTLE ROCK—After nearly a dozen years without an execution, Arkansas is racing to put eight men to death next month over a 10-day period — an unprecedented timetable the state says is necessary because one of the three ingredients in the lethal injection will soon expire.

If carried out, the executions beginning April 17 would make Arkansas the first state to execute that many inmates in such a short time since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.

The accelerated schedule calls for prison staff to conduct four double executions, with only a few days in between. It poses a number of risks, experts say, and the state's preparations are shrouded in secrecy.

Some attorneys and anti-death penalty groups question whether the quick turnarounds will intensify pressure on the prison staff and cause problems, as happened in Oklahoma in 2014, when an inmate writhed and moaned on a gurney for 43 minutes after his injection, or in Arizona, where the fatal dose took nearly two hours to work.

Read more: http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2017/mar/22/accelerated-executions-arkansas-plans-put-eight-inmates-death-over-10-day-period/666426/