Five Arkansas Supreme Court justices are challenging efforts to sanction them over the court's decision to disqualify a judge who participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration from hearing any execution-related cases.
The justices filed a lawsuit challenging the charges related to the court's decision to prohibit Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen from handling any death penalty cases. Justices disqualified Griffen after he was photographed strapped to a cot outside the governor's mansion the same day he prevented Arkansas from using a lethal injection drug last year.
A Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission panel says the court never gave Griffen notice or an opportunity to be heard over his removal from death penalty cases.
The lawsuit says the commission doesn't have jurisdiction over the court's order disqualifying Griffen.