By Hannah Bagley
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A federal judge delays a trial over Arkansas’ lethal injection method.
After Senior Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Merritt made a statement saying that the setting of execution dates and ordering of new lethal injection drugs has been put on hold until next spring, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker pushed a trial that challenges the state’s use of Midazolam until April 2019.
The drug allegedly has the potential to cause inmates on death row cruel and unusual pain. Baker temporarily halted the execution by lethal injection of nine inmates in 2017, citing similar concerns.