Arizona is appealing a federal judge's order blocking the scheduled execution today of death row inmate Jeffrey Landrigan.
The order issued yesterday by US District Judge Roslyn Silver says more time is needed to consider a challenge to the use of a lethal injection drug from an unidentified manufacturer.
The state is asking the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to lift the stay.
It argues that Judge Silver made faulty assumptions and disregarded provisions of the execution protocol that ensure inmates are unconscious before other drugs are administered.
Landrigan's lawyers contend he could be suffocated painfully if the sodium thiopental doesn't render him unconscious before other drugs are administered to paralyse his muscles and stop his heart.
Judge Silver blocked today's scheduled execution of an Arizona death row inmate, saying more time is needed to consider the state's use of a scarce lethal injection drug from an unidentified source.
US District Judge Roslyn Silver says that's a legitimate concern and issued an order yesterday afternoon blocking the execution.
Landrigan was sentenced to death in 1990 after being convicted of first-degree felony murder in the strangulation and stabbing death of Chester Dyer of Phoenix.
AP