UN rights office ‘deeply troubled’ about Arkansas executions

GENEVA – The U.N. human rights office says it’s “deeply troubled” by four executions over eight days in Arkansas, insisting an accelerated timetable for them based on the looming expiration of a sedative used “adds to the arbitrariness and cruelty of the whole process.”

Spokeswoman Liz Throssell stopped short Friday of condemning the executions, but said: “Rushing executions can deny prisoners the opportunity to fully exercise their right to appeal against their conviction and/or sentence.”

Throssell said use of the sedative midazolam “has been criticized for failing to prevent people from suffering pain.”

She said the rights office welcomed the stay of execution in four other cases in Arkansas, and pointed to a “welcome and steady decline” in executions in the United States in recent years.

The U.N. opposes the death penalty.