Alabama agrees to suspend action in execution lawsuits while awaiting U.S. Supreme Court lethal injection ruling

By Kent Faulk
on March 19, 2015 at 3:40 PM, updated March 19, 2015 at 5:59 PM

Alabama has apparently agreed to suspend the executions of death row inmates until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the lethal injection procedure and drug combination used in Oklahoma, according to an order issued by a federal judge in Montgomery.

U.S. District Court Judge Keith Watkins states in an order issued Wednesday in the case of Alabama Death Row inmate Tommy Arthur that he has a total of seven lethal injection lawsuits by death row inmates currently pending before him. All seven make similar claims and are at various stages of litigation.

Watkins stated in the Arthur case that it is in the best interests of justice to continue a May hearing in that case until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the lethal injection case of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office also has "conceded that the best course of action is to stay decisions on the lethal injection cases across the board until Glossip is decided," Watkins writes in his order.

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