House panel advances lethal-injection measure

— An Arkansas House committee has approved a proposal to rewrite a 2009 lethal injection law that the state Supreme Court threw out last year.

The House Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance a measure that would spell out how the Arkansas Department of Correction is to carry out executions. The bill now goes to the House.

Republican Sen. Bart Hester of Cave Springs introduced the proposal after the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down a 2009 lethal injection law in June.

The high court sided with a group of death row inmates who said the lethal injection law violated part of the state’s constitution that deals with separating the branches of government.

The Senate approved Hester’s proposal last week.

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