LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A federal court has dismissed an Arkansas judge's lawsuit challenging his disqualification from execution-related cases over his participation in an anti-death penalty demonstration where he laid on a cot outside the governor's mansion.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower ruling Monday that allowed Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen's lawsuit to proceed against the state Supreme Court's seven justices for prohibiting him from hearing death penalty cases.
The justices disqualified Griffen after he participated in the demonstration the same day he blocked Arkansas from using a lethal injection drug over claims the company had been misled by the state. During the demonstration, Griffen was strapped to a cot and wearing an anti-death penalty button.
Griffen argued the disqualification violated his constitutional rights.