PHOENIX (TheBlaze/AP) — An appeals court has granted an Arizona death row inmate's request to postpone his execution until prison officials reveal details on the two-drug combination that will be used to put him to death.
This undated photo provided by the Arizona Department of Corrections shows inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood. (image source: AP/Arizona Department of Corrections)
The preliminary injunction granted Saturday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes four days before the scheduled execution of Joseph Wood.
Wood is scheduled to be executed for the 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged girlfriend and her father.
Wood's lawyers argued prison officials violated his First Amendment rights by refusing to reveal the makers of the drugs and other details.
Attorneys for the state argued there was no First Amendment right to the information.
The 9th Circuit judges did not weigh in on the "ultimate merits" of Wood's case but said he presented "serious questions" that justified the postponement.
The headline of this story has been updated.
