Arkansas says it has new supply of execution drug

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas said Tuesday that it has a new supply of a drug used for lethal injections that had expired last month, potentially clearing the way for the state to resume executions after a decade-long hiatus.

The state Department of Correction announced it had received a supply of vecuronium bromide with an expiration date of March 1, 2018. The state's previous supply of the paralytic expired on June 30. Department spokesman Solomon Graves declined to comment on how much of the drug the state now had and when it received the drug.

The announcement comes less than a month after the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld a state law that keeps information about lethal injection drugs confidential. The eight death row inmates who had challenged the law have asked the court to reconsider its decision. The court's ruling on the secrecy law won't take effect until justices decide on the inmates' latest request.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson's office said the governor, who was in Germany on a trade mission, was unavailable for comment. J.R. Davis, Hutchinson's spokesman, said the governor was waiting on the court's ruling to take effect and for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge to request that execution dates be set.

Rutledge's office said the attorney general wouldn't request dates until the ruling on the secrecy law takes effect.

The state's potassium chloride expires at the end of January 2017 and the midazolam expires in April 2017. Arkansas hasn't executed an inmate since 2005.

In a 4-3 ruling last month, the state Supreme Court reversed a lower court's decision against the execution secrecy law, which requires the Department of Correction to conceal the maker, seller and other information about the drugs. The inmates argued the law could lead to cruel and unusual punishment and that the state reneged on an earlier pledge to share information.