Arkansas' highest court has halted a judge's order requiring the state to release the labels and package inserts for an execution drug it plans to use in putting an inmate to death in November.
The state Supreme Court on Wednesday granted an emergency stay of Pulaski County Judge Mackie Pierce's ruling requiring officials to release the materials related to its supply of midazolam, one of three drugs used in Arkansas' lethal injection process.
State attorneys had asked for the high court to intervene earlier this week, after Pierce ordered the state Department of Correction to release the records no later than 5 p.m. Thursday.
An attorney sued the state after officials wouldn't release the labels and package inserts.
In a one-page order, the Supreme Court granted the state’s request for an emergency stay. Chief Justice Dan Kemp indicated that he would have denied the motion.
In a separate letter, Justice Courtney Goodson wrote that one of the attorneys for the legal team seeking the records, Heather Goodson Zachary, was her former law clerk. But Goodson did not recuse from the case.
Arkansas law keeps the supplier of its lethal injection drugs secret. The state put four inmates to death in April. It has one execution planned in November. The state said last month that it had obtained a new supply of midazolam.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
The Associated Press and John Moritz of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette contributed to this story.