The Arkansas Parole Board has notified the attorneys for four Arkansas death row inmates that approaching deadlines to apply for executive clemency have been suspended.
Board spokesman Solomon Graves confirmed in an email Monday that the deadlines are suspended for the four inmates, who had been scheduled for execution on Dec. 14 and Jan. 14. Graves says the decision was made because of a temporary restraining order placed on those executions by the Arkansas Supreme Court last month.
The Supreme Court issued the stay to allow the inmates' constitutional challenge of Arkansas' execution secrecy law and three-drug protocol to be heard.
The board recommended against granting clemency to inmate Stacey Eugene Johnson last month. The applications for Marcel Wayne Williams and Jack Harold Jones Jr. would have been due Wednesday.