20 April 2017 :

Pulaski County circuit judge Alice Gray ruled that the state can't use one of its lethal injection drugs in any executions. “Irreparable harm will result. Harm that could not be addressed by (monetary) damages,” judge Gray said in a ruling from the bench. The company argued that it would suffer harm financially and to its reputation if the executions were carried out. The state had faced a lawsuit by McKesson Corp., which says it sold the drug vecuronium bromide to the Arkansas Department of Correction for inmate medical care, not executions. The company sued to stop Arkansas from using the drug in the planned lethal injections. McKesson Corp. argued at it would suffer harm financially and to its reputation if the executions were carried out and a judge agreed. A state prison official testified that he deliberately ordered the drug last year in a way that there wouldn't be a paper trail, relying on phone calls and text messages. Arkansas Department of Correction Deputy Director Rory Griffin said he didn't keep records of the texts, but McKesson salesman Tim Jenkins did. Judd Deere, a spokesman for Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge, said the state will appeal Gray’s ruling.