Legislation was filed Wednesday to limit the last meals of prisoners on the night of their execution to food that is already available within the prison.
The sponsor of the bill, state Rep. Rebecca Petty, R-Rogers, is a familiar name on death-penalty legislation. Her daughter, Andi, was killed in 1999 by a man who is now imprisoned on death row at the Varner Unit.
During a series of four executions in 2017 — the last time the state put anyone to death — three inmates received last meals of fried chicken and other sides. A fourth prisoner declined a meal in favor of communion.
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Prison spokesman Solomon Graves said the state Department of Correction is reviewing Petty's bill to determine how it would impact existing protocol. Graves could not say what existing protocol is.
There are currently 30 men on Arkansas' death row.
However, the state lacks the drugs needed under to law to carry out executions by lethal injection.