My prediction, last spring, the state of Arkansas is indeed preparing to kill a killer, seems more realistic this past week, when a terse statement confirmed that now the prison system has the three drugs for the fatal execution cocktail.
The Arkansas Department of Correction, which issued the announcement, said it had received a supply of one of the three drugs used in the lethal injection process.
The other two drugs are, sources say, on hand at the department.
The Arkansas Department of Correction has notified the governor's office and the attorney general's office of a supply of vecuronium bromide with an expiration date of March 1, 2018.
Already, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he will again set the execution dates for these nine men who have already exhausted their appeals process.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, it seems, quickly agrees by her recent statements in the press on this law-and-order topic.
Remember, Hutchinson set the execution dates for these inmates, once before, but the legal wrangling over the source of the lethal injection drugs and other court delays caused the execution dates to pass unfulfilled.
And just so we all know, the three-drug cocktail to be used will be vecuronium bromide, midazolam and potassium chloride.
And just so we all know: Midazolam, a paralytic, is administered first, then vecuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
And thus, soon will end the life of a person arrested, tried and convicted within the Arkansas Judicial System of capital murder.
There is still a court hurdle, though many legal sources say it isn't much of one, by the eight Death Row inmates, asking for a rehearing of a 4-3 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling. That ruling allowed the legislature to over-ride a constitutional requirement for the disclosure of all public expenditures, such as whatever money was spent, and where, on the acquisition of this new drug.
What the Arkansas Supreme Court decided, in that 4-3 split, was that public disclosure was required. The law passed by the legislature chose presumably to hide that disclosure because state officials claim identification of drug sources discourages suppliers who don't want to be associated with executions.
And that is true. Many manufacturers of drugs outside the United States do not want the publicity of their drugs, designed for other medical purposes, being known to have been used in the United States to execute inmates.
Right now there are no execution dates currently pending.
Gov. Hutchinson may seize upon a quick opportunity to move the process forward by resetting execution dates and instructing the attorney general, even though she needs little or no prodding in this matter, to seek legal approval to move along the appeals process on the current suit pending on behalf of the eight inmates.
Currently, Hutchinson is in Europe touting the state as a haven for industrial expansion.
He needs to be very, very careful on this law-and-order topic while overseas. There could be a significant backlash at his economic opportunities there over this issue.
Back home, in the Governor's Conference Room, there would be little backlash over such an announcement of restarting the execution countdowns on these eight individuals.
There are 34 men on Death Row for convictions dating back to 1989.
The last execution in Arkansas was in 2005.
And as we all know there are daily, it seems, cries of outrage involving guns, and killings.
Soon the state, I predict, will begin killing the killers -- on Asa Hutchinson's watch.
Executions will be just another unintended portion of Hutchinson's political legacy. It will be an issue that will excite those who are so vastly divided on this life-and-death issue at the hands of the state of Arkansas.
-- Maylon Rice is a former journalist who worked for several northwest Arkansas publications. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 07/20/2016