Montgomery, AL – Attorneys for an Alabama death row inmate scheduled to die next week have asked a federal appeals court to hold off on the execution to give time for a possible rehearing.
The motion filed Thursday responds to an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversal of a judge's decision to dismiss Thomas Arthur's appeal.
Arthur is set to be executed on March 29 for the 1982 murder-for-hire killing of Muscle Shoals businessman Troy Wicker.
His attorneys claimed that Alabama's decision to use a new sedative called pentobarbital as part of its three-drug execution combination could be cruel and unusual punishment.
Deputy Attorney General Clay Crenshaw says the state will file a petition to ask the entire 11th Circuit to reconsider the court's decision.
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