The Arkansas Supreme Court has allowed the state to use a drug it had planned to use as part of a cocktail of multiple lethal injections this month but had been blocked by a lower court from using after a seller said the prison system used deception in acquiring the chemical.
The ruling came about three hours before Arkansas planned to execute convicted murderers Stacey Johnson and Ledell Lee.
It was not clear whether the state could proceed with either execution after multiple petitions for stays were filed at the US Supreme Court, which has not issued a ruling on the matters.
Arkansas was planning to execute Johnson and Lee from 7pm (1am Irish time) at its Cummins Unit in Grady, which houses the state's death chamber.
Yesterday the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a halt to Johnson's execution after he requested DNA testing he said could prove his innocence.
Legal experts said it was unlikely that the state could proceed with his execution.
Today, the same court denied a request from Lee to halt his execution.
Arkansas, which has not conducted an execution in 12 years, at one point had planned to execute eight inmates in 11 days, the most of any state in as short a period since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson had set that schedule because one of the three drugs used in Arkansas executions, the sedative midazolam, expires at the end of April.
That plan prompted what death penalty experts have said was an unprecedented array of legal filings, and raised questions about US death chamber protocols and lethal injection drug mixes.
Yesterday, a state circuit judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the use of one of the drugs Arkansas acquired for lethal injections.
The judge ruled on a lawsuit by US pharmaceutical wholesaler McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc which accused the state of obtaining the muscle relaxant vecuronium bromide under false pretences.
The company, a unit of McKesson Corp, said it would not have sold the drug to the Arkansas prison system had it known it would be used in executions.
It is demanding the drug be returned or confiscated.
Arkansas officials have said they cannot obtain the drug from another source. Should McKesson prevail, all pending executions would be blocked, the state said in court papers.
A spokesman for state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, said she would appeal that ruling.
Also yesterday, the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a stay for Johnson, who for years has claimed he is innocent and is seeking DNA testing his lawyers say will clear him of the 1993 murder and sexual assault of Carol Heath.
Lee was convicted and sentenced to death for beating Debra Reese to death with a tire iron in 1993.
Even if Arkansas wins reversals at the state level, the eight inmates who were scheduled to be put to death this month have three requests for reprieves at the US Supreme Court.
The executions of inmates Bruce Ward and Don Davis, which had been slated for Monday, were called off after court-ordered halts over mental competency issues.
