18 April 2017 :

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday voted 4-3 to grant stays for Don Davis and Bruce Ward, who were due to be executed on Monday night. The inmates’ attorneys wanted stays of execution while the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a separate case concerning access to independent mental health experts by defendants. The U.S. high court is set to hold oral arguments on April 24. Ward has a lifelong history of severe mental illness while Davis has an IQ in the range of an intellectual disability, attorneys argued. Earlier in the day, the state’s high court also lifted an order that blocked the plan to execute eight inmates based on the three-drug protocol — including Davis and Ward — by the end of April.