4 months ago
ShareWhether Arkansas will be allowed to resume executing death-row inmates now is up to the state Supreme Court.
The court heard arguments Thursday morning over a lawsuit by death-row inmate Frank Williams Jr. Federal public defender Josh Lee told justices that the state's lethal injection rules should be subject to state procedures requiring open meetings and notice when rules are changed. Lee says a law passed this year by the Legislature to lift that requirement can't retroactively apply to Williams and others.
Justin Allen, the state's chief deputy attorney general, told the court the new law does apply. Allen says the law doesn't change Williams' death sentence, only the procedures for an execution that hasn't been carried out.
Justices gave no indication of when they'll issue a ruling.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
