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Arkansas judge halts scheduled executions of eight inmates

An Arkansas judge issued an order on Friday that temporarily blocked the scheduled executions of eight convicted murderers after lawyers for the death row inmates challenged secrecy provisions in the state’s lethal injection procedures. Arkansas, one of the 31 U.S. states with the death penalty, has not carried out an execution since 2005 but had planned to resume capital punishment on Oct. 21 with two executions. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen took the action after lawyers for the inmates argued on Wednesday that provisions keeping secret the name of the vendors who provide the drugs used in lethal injections violated state law.