Set off by a slew of scheduled executions in Arkansas, the death penalty, and its legal and ethical implications, are back in the spotlight.

In April, Arkansas planned eight executions of death row inmates in 11 days. Arkansas scheduled the executions to beat the end-of-the-month expiration date of the state’s stock of the sedative midazolam, one of the three drugs used in lethal injections.

The sped up execution schedule has ignited nationwide debate: Is it right to take the life of a person on death row because the lethal injection drug is soon to expire? The issue grows even more contentious with the revelation that during the April 27 execution of Arkansas inmate Kenneth Williams, midazolam was responsible for Williams violently convulsing and lurching 20 times.

In an Associated Press article, Jen Moreno, staff attorney at the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic, stated, “There is so much evidence that this drug leads to problematic and likely torturous executions, and the two courts that have heard the most evidence – Ohio and Arkansas – ruled against the drug.”

On Thursday, April 13^th, 2017, drug manufacturers — West-Ward Pharmaceuticals and Fresenius Kabi USA — asked a federal court to block Arkansas from using the lethal drug on inmates.

Spokeswoman Keri Butler from West-Ward Pharmaceuticals told the Los Angeles Times, “We object in the strongest possible way to any of our products being used for the purposes of capital punishment as it is inconsistent with our values and mission of improving lives, and against their licensed FDA indication.”

One inmate, Ledell Lee, was convicted of murdering Debra Reese 24 years ago. Lee, executed on April 21, 2017, maintained his innocence throughout his entire trial. The state denied giving him a DNA test to prove or deny his innocence.

“The testing available then wasn’t sophisticated enough for fragmented samples,” the ACLU said in a statement, “and no other DNA evidence was found to tie him to the crime.”

So far four Arkansas inmates — Ledell Lee, Marcel Williams, Jack Jones, and Kenneth Williams, have been put to death. Four other executions remain on hold.