Arkansas seeks to carry out 1 of 2 first executions

VARNER, Ark. (AP) — State and federal courts lifted the two primary obstacles Arkansas faced in its plan to execute eight inmates before the end of April, but the state backed away from legal efforts to carry out one of the first two lethal injections scheduled tonight.

The decisions from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court were among a flurry of legal actions over the series of planned lethal injections that, if carried out, would mark the most inmates put to death by a state in such a short period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

The rulings left the state fighting against the clock to execute convicted killer Don Davis before his death warrant was expected to expire at midnight. Davis and Bruce Ward were set to be executed tonight and had been granted stays by the state Supreme Court, but Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said she wouldn't appeal Ward's stay at this time.

The state scheduled the executions to occur before its supply of midazolam expires at the end of the month, and Arkansas has not found a new supplier of the lethal injection drug.

"Allowing [Davis'] stay to stand will effectively prevent Arkansas from seeing justice done," Rutledge said in a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Separately, a federal appeals court overturned U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker's decision to halt the executions over the use of midazolam, which has been used in flawed executions in other states, but the Arkansas Supreme Court's stays remain in place.