17 April 2017 :

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen has issued a temporary restraining order against the Arkansas Department of Corrections preventing the state from using the supply of vecuronium bromide in any of the scheduled April executions. Hours earlier, the nation's largest pharmaceutical company went to court to argue that the state had purchased the drug using a false pretense. The judge scheduled a hearing for Tuesday morning, about 14 hours after the state had intended to carry out its 1st execution since 2005. Judge Wendell Griffen, an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, issued its order after a petition from its maker, McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc.. Arkansas Attorney General Rutledge filed an emergency petition with the Arkansas Supreme Court on Saturday seeking to overturn Griffen’s order.