MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A federal judge says Alabama can’t execute death row inmate Tommy Arthur next month as planned because a two-year-old stay of execution remains in place.
U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins said Monday that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Arthur’s execution in 2012 and that order remains in place until the court lifts it.
Watkins also ruled that Arthur could amend an existing lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the state’s new lethal injection drugs.
Arthur’s lead attorney Suhana Han says she’s pleased by the ruling. The attorney general’s office did not have an immediate comment.
Arthur has been on death row since 1983 after being convicted of the murder-for-hire of a Muscle Shoals man.