A federal judge has granted convicted killer Don William Davis' request to halt his scheduled Nov. 8 execution in light of higher court decisions related to a lawsuit that challenges lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.
U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright granted the stay, saying in her written order Tuesday that it would not make sense to deny the request when a federal appeals court has already allowed a stay of Arkansas death-row inmate Jack Harold Jones Jr.'s Oct. 16 execution.
Both Davis and Jones are party to the lawsuit that challenges lethal injection.
"The Court finds no rational basis for granting a stay of execution for Jones and denying the same for Davis. Accordingly, the Court finds that Davis's motion should be granted," Webber said.
Davis was convicted in the 1990 execution-style slaying of Jane Daniel of Rogers. Prosecutors said Davis broke into a home next door to Daniel's on Oct. 12, 1990, and stole a variety of items, including a .44-caliber Redhawk Magnum revolver.
Jones was convicted of the 1991 rape and slaying of Bald Knob bookkeeper Mary Phillips and an attack on her 11-year-old daughter. Prosecutors accused him of strangling Phillips first with his hands and later with a cord of a nearby coffee maker during the June 6, 1995, attack.
Both inmates signed on to the lawsuit filed by a third Arkansas death-row inmate, Terrick Nooner, that is similar to a case out of Kentucky that is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Nooner's suit involves the three drugs used in Arkansas - an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer and a substance to stop the heart. The suit claims that, if a condemned prisoner is not given enough anesthetic, he can suffer "excruciating pain" without being able to cry out.
Nooner was to be executed Sept. 18 for the March 16, 1993, shooting death of Scot Stobaugh, 22, a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
But while a state appeal was pending on a federal court decision granting a stay, Gov. Mike Beebe called off the execution. Beebe also halted preparations for Jones' scheduled execution while the state appealed a stay he won in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said Wednesday the governor would consult with the state attorney general's office before making a decision on whether to call off Davis' execution.
"This is something that definitely will factor into our deliberations," DeCample said.
He said he expected the attorney general would want to appeal Wright's ruling.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel was out of the country Wednesday. His spokesman Gabe Holstrom had no immediate comment.
At least a dozen states using lethal injection have put executions on hold because of legal challenges to the procedure. In the U.S. Supreme Court case, two Kentucky death-row inmates claim the mix of drugs used in many of the 36 states that perform lethal injections violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.