Arkansas Execution Drug Lawuit: State Appeals Judge's Ruling

LITTLE ROCK, AR — Arkansas is appealing a judge's decision to allow a medical supply company move forward with trying to prevent the state from using one of its execution drugs.

The state on Friday filed a notice that it is appealing Pulaski County Circuit Judge Alice Gray's order denying the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit by McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc. McKesson wants an order preventing the state from using its supply of vecuronium bromide, one of three drugs used in Arkansas' lethal injection process.

The state is already appealing an April order by the judge blocking the drug's use. The state Supreme Court stayed that ruling, which allowed Arkansas to resume executions for the first time in nearly 12 years. Gray denied the state's motion to dismiss last week. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The supply company says it learned too late that the Arkansas Department of Correction planned to use its product during an aggressive series of executions in April. Gray granted a preliminary injunction halting its use, but the state Supreme Court dissolved the ruling. Arkansas subsequently executed four men, using McKesson's paralytic lethal-injection drug as the second step of a three-drug process.

The company fears its reputation and bottom line will suffer if people believe its life-saving drugs are being used to kill.

Photo credit: Kelly P. Kissel/Associated Press