Court upholds Arkansas’ use of sedative in executions

By ANDREW DeMILLO
Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld Arkansas’ use of the sedative midazolam in its lethal injections. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court judge’s 2020 ruling upholding the state’s execution process. The ruling comes more than five years since Arkansas raced to execute eight inmates over 11 days before its batch of midazolam expired. The state ultimately put four men to death after courts halted the other four executions. Arkansas hasn’t carried out any more executions since then and doesn’t have any scheduled.