LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Correction officials and the attorney general's office are trying to figure out how to modify Arkansas' lethal injection law after the state's top court threw the statute out earlier this year.
"If we are to carry out an execution here in Arkansas then adjustments have to be made to state statute because of the court ruling," said Dina Tyler with the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Tyler said the attorney general's office is now working with the ADC and lawmakers on a new bill.
Deputy Attorney General Dennis Hansen told lawmakers Tuesday a new lethal injection statute will need to be adopted in the coming legislative session, which begins January 14.
"What is at issue is that according to the statue the director of the department of correction was given too much discretion in using the chemicals that are used executions," said Tyler.
She said before Arkansas used three chemicals to execute, the first lethal, the second to speed the process.
"I don't see any reason why they have to have the discretion to use rat poison if they want to because according to the last statue they didn't have to tell anyone what they did and there were no standards," said Rita Sklar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas.
Sklar said her organization is against the death penalty.
Hansen and the Department of Correction director addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday after the Arkansas Supreme Court in June sided with death row inmates who said a 2009 execution law violated part of the state's constitution about separating the branches of government.
That law said death sentences are to be carried out by lethal injection of one or more chemicals that the director of the Department of Correction chooses.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)