A judge will hear oral arguments next month in a lawsuit challenging Arkansas' new lethal injection law. Court records show that arguments are scheduled for Jan. 17 in Little Rock.
Nine death row inmates are suing the state over an execution law that legislators enacted this year. That new law came about after the state Supreme Court struck down the previous one in 2012, saying legislators had ceded too much control over execution procedures to correction officials.
The inmates say the new law still gives too much power to the state's Department of Correction. The state wants a judge to uphold the law.
Arkansas had 37 inmates on death row, but one was recently granted a new trial. No executions are scheduled.
