USA - Arizona. The Arizona Supreme Court has halted the planned execution of Donald Beaty

The Arizona Supreme Court has halted the planned execution of Donald Beaty, who was scheduled to be given a lethal injection tomorrow morning for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in 1984. The temporary stay of execution was issued late tonight after Arizona officials said they had planned to replace 1 of 3 drugs to be used in the execution because federal officials contended the state failed to fill out a form to import the drug being swapped out. That prompted Beaty's lawyers to file motions seeking the stay of execution from the state's highest court and the U.S. District Court in Phoenix, arguing he hadn't had adequate opportunity to review the late change in drug protocol. The court set a hearing on the matter for tomorrow morning. The attorney general's office notified the state Supreme Court today that the Corrections Department would replace sodium thiopental with another sedative -- pentobarbital. The state's filing said the Corrections Department was making the swap because a U.S. Justice Department official told the state the Drug Enforcement Administration believes the Corrections Department "failed to fill out one of the forms necessary for importation of sodium thiopental from a foreign source."