USA - Alabama. The U.S. District Court granted a stay to Tommy Arthur 2 days before he was scheduled to be executed.

The U.S. District Court granted a stay to Tommy Arthur 2 days before he was scheduled to be executed. Arthur has been on death row for 32 years and this is the 6th time he's been granted a stay. Arthur's lawyers had filed an emergency motion late Monday in an effort to postpone his execution. They learned today that the U.S. District Court has granted their request until a hearing about the matter in May. Arthur is protesting the combination of drugs Alabama uses to execute inmates. Alabama in September adopted a new drug combination that uses midazolam hydrochloride as the sedative to render a prisoner unconscious at the start of an execution. Arthur had been scheduled to die by lethal injection February 19 at Holman Prison in Atmore. Arthur was sentenced to death for the contract killing of Troy Wicker in 1982. Arthur has filed several previous court challenges against the combination of drugs used for lethal injection executions. There are many similar challenges from death row inmates in other states. (See also September 27, 2007 and December 5, 2007).