Arkansas executes first inmate since 2005

Arkansas on Thursday night reportedly executed its first inmate in nearly 12 years amid an ongoing dispute about the state’s expiring lethal injection drugs. 

Ledell Lee, 51, was put to death by lethal injection shortly before midnight local time, CNN reported. In 1995, Lee was convicted in the murder of Debra Reese, 26, who was found beaten and strangled in her home. 

Arkansas had planned to execute 10 inmates over a period of eight days before the end of this month, when its store of lethal drugs is set to expire.

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Four of those men have received stays of execution, though state officials have been fighting those court orders.

“We have worked round the clock for the last couple of weeks and particularly in the last couple of days, as judges have made decisions and court cases have been filed in these pieces of litigation, to ensure again that justice is carried out for these families of the victims,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said last weekend.