June marked the end of a three-year long legal battle to tighten up Arizona’s execution laws, but even after the state reached an agreement, the fate of those on death row is still uncertain.

Changes to the state execution policy published by the Arizona Department of Corrections appear to meet demands defense attorneys made in a lawsuit filed on behalf of seven death-row inmates.

Lawyers for death-row inmates say recent changes to Arizona's procedures for carrying out the death penalty didn't do enough to confront abuses in the state's power to decide the methods and amounts of drugs used in executions.

The state of Arizona has agreed to settle part of a lawsuit that protests the way it carries out executions.

A judge presiding over a lawsuit that protests the way Arizona carries out executions on Wednesday questioned the solidity of the state's promise that it was abandoning the sedative midazolam as one of its lethal-injection drugs.

The Arizona Department of Corrections told a federal judge today the state cannot conduct executions because most of the supplies of drugs for lethal injection have dried up.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court on June 20 approved the use of the sedative midazolam in executions, an attorney for Arizona death-row prisoners said the issue of whether use of the drug is constitutional isn’t completely settled.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments April 29 on whether the use of the sedative midazolam in a three-drug combination makes for an unconstitutional execution.

Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan announced today the state will stop executing prisoners with the drug combination used on Joseph Wood, who took two hours to die in July.

Several news organizations have filed a lawsuit against Arizona that says the public has a First Amendment right to information about its execution protocols.