Eighteen condemned men say in a federal court filing that four recent executions in Arkansas illustrate problems severe enough to be unconstitutional in the state’s execution procedure.

AP reports in detail here on the complaint. It includes execution witnesses’ descriptions of apparent pain for inmates who should have been anesthetized. The public also is barred, the pleading said, from full information about the administration of the three drugs used to kill people in Arkansas. The filing says other methods, including a firing squad, gas or pentobarbital might be preferable.

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The attorney general’s office called the filing a delaying tactic

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