LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Arkansas’ highest court says it won’t reconsider its decisions striking down a law that gave the state’s prison director authority to determine whether an inmate is mentally competent to be executed.
The state Supreme Court on Thursday denied the attorney general’s petitions for a rehearing on its rulings in favor of two death row inmates who were spared from execution last year. Justices last month ruled the competency law violated due process rights guaranteed in the Arkansas and U.S. Constitutions.
Death row inmates Bruce Ward and Jack Greene were granted stays last year so the court could hear their case. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge had argued that the competency law can be applied in a way that is constitutional.
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