LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas' stockpile of a paralytic drug needed for the executions of eight death row inmates will expire at midnight Thursday, leaving the state without a means to resume executions for the first time in a decade.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he wants the Department of Correction to find a new supply of the drug rather than use another method allowed under the law passed last year. That law requiring the state to keep information about the drugs confidential was upheld by the Arkansas Supreme Court last week.
Department spokesman Solomon Graves said the agency will disclose when it obtains new drugs.
In October, the department said the supplier of the original batch of drugs would not supply more. It remains unclear whether the ruling will change the company's decision.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
