LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas voters won’t get to weigh in on a ballot initiative to expand medical marijuana after the state Supreme Court ruled the measure didn't fully explain what it would do, tossing out the initiative just two weeks before the election.
It’s too late to remove the measure from the ballot — early voting began Monday — so the court has ordered election officials not to count any votes cast on it. The proposed constitutional amendment would have broadened the definition of medical professionals who can certify patients for medical cannabis, expanded qualifying conditions and made medical cannabis cards valid for three years.
In Monday's 4-3 decision, the justices ruled the measure did not fully inform voters that it would have stripped the Legislature’s ability to change the 2016 constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana in the state.
“This decision doomed the proposed ballot title, and it is plainly misleading,” Justice Shawn Womack wrote in the majority opinion.
The court also said the measure did not inform voters that, if approved, the amendment would legalize up to an ounce of marijuana possession for any purpose if marijuana becomes legal under federal law.
In court filings, organizers noted the ballot measure had cited the number of the provision that would be repealed. The group argued that past court rulings said measures did not need to summarize the current law being changed.
In a dissent, Justice Cody Hiland said the court was ignoring decades-long precedent by ruling the measure’s wording was misleading.
“Long ago, this court established definitive standards for evaluating the sufficiency of popular names and ballot titles,” Hiland wrote. “This court has not deviated from those standards until today.”
In the same ruling, justices rejected election officials’ reasons for ruling the measure’s organizers fell short of the signatures required for putting the measure on the ballot.
Arkansans for Patient Access, the group behind the measure, said it would keep pushing to expand the medical marijuana program and that the signatures it gathered showed widespread support.
“We are deeply disappointed in the Court’s decision,” the group said in a statement. “It seems politics has triumphed over legal precedent.”
Arkansans for Patient Access sued after Secretary of State John Thurston said the group fell short of the signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. The issue over the ballot measure's wording was raised by Protect Arkansas Kids, a group opposed to the measure that had intervened in the case.
Thurston’s office had declined to count some of the signatures submitted, asserting the group had not followed paperwork rules regarding paid signature gatherers.
The state rejected petitions submitted in favor of an anti-abortion ballot measure earlier this year on similar grounds.
The state in July determined the group had fallen short of the required signatures but qualified for 30 additional days to circulate petitions. But the state then told the group that any additional signatures gathered by paid signature gatherers would not be counted if required information was submitted by the canvassing company rather than sponsors of the measure.
The court on Monday said that decision was wrong, saying state law allows a wide range of people to be considered sponsors of the measure.
Groups had already been campaigning against the measure, even though it was uncertain whether it would be put to a vote this November. Family Council Action Committee last week announced it planned to launch a statewide tour against the measure.
“A measure this bad simply has no business being on the ballot or in the constitution,” Jerry Cox, the group's director, said after Monday's ruling.
About half of U.S. states allow recreational marijuana and a dozen more have legalized medical marijuana. Those numbers could grow after the November election. Voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana for adults, and two medical marijuana proposals will be on Nebraska’s ballot.
FILE - Boxes of petitions signed for a proposed ballot measure expanding Arkansas' medical marijuana program sit in a committee room at the Arkansas Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas man whose execution was abruptly halted last week after lawmakers ordered Robert Roberson to appear at the state Capitol did not show up as scheduled Monday, following objections to transporting an inmate from death row for the extraordinary purpose of testifying before a public committee.
Roberson had been set to become the first person in the U.S. executed over a murder conviction connected to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. He was taken to America's busiest death chamber last Thursday but a last-ditch effort by lawmakers to buy Roberson more time stopped his execution at the eleventh hour.
Democratic state Rep. Joe Moody, the chairman of a state House committee that led efforts to stop the execution, said at the start of the highly anticipated hearing that Roberson likely would not appear but that lawmakers still hoped to do so soon.
The Texas Attorney General's Office had told lawmakers that Roberson would only appear by videoconference, which Moody said would be “poorly suited” for Roberson because he is autistic.
“That doesn’t mean Robert won’t testify at all,” said Moody, without saying when Roberson might testify or how.
Robeson's claims of innocence are backed by a group of Republican and Democratic legislators who say he was convicted based on outdated science.
Once Roberson testifies to lawmakers, prosecutors could seek a new execution date at any time, according to Gretchen Sween, one of his attorneys.
Lawmakers have sought to have Roberson transported from death row to appear in person, raising the possibility of an extraordinary scene in the Texas Capitol. However, the state attorney general's office told the committee he would appear virtually.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's office said the Texas Supreme Court should throw out the subpoena, writing that the House committee has “stepped out of line” in their first public statement on the case.
Rebuffed by the courts and Texas’ parole board in their efforts to spare Roberson’s life, legislators last Thursday subpoenaed Roberson to testify in an unusual tactic to buy him more time. Lawmakers on the House committee have expressed frustration with Texas' junk science law, which they say has failed to work as intended, including in Roberson's case.
The 2013 law allows a person convicted of a crime to seek relief if the evidence used against them is no longer credible. At the time, it was hailed by the Legislature as a uniquely future-proof solution to wrongful convictions based on faulty science. But Roberson’s supporters say his case points to faults in the judicial system where the law has been weakened by deliberate misinterpretation from the state’s highest criminal court.
In the last 10 years, 74 applications have been filed and ruled on under the junk science law. A third of applications were submitted by people facing the death penalty. All of them were unsuccessful.
Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell, whose office prosecuted Roberson, has previously told the committee that a court hearing was held in 2022 in which Roberson’s attorneys presented their new evidence to a judge, who rejected their claims.
Roberson was sentenced to death for the killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in 2002. Prosecutors argued the infant's death was caused by serious head trauma from being violently shaken back and forth. Roberson's attorneys say that the bruising on Curtis' body was likely due to complications with severe pneumonia and not child abuse.
Almost 90 lawmakers across party lines, medical experts and best-selling author John Grisham had called on Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to stay his execution. Abbott has not commented on Roberson's case and the Texas parole board rejected pleas to grant clemency.
Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Texas state representatives Lacey Hull, left, and John Bucy III comment during a press conference after the stay granted by the Texas Supreme Court to halt the execution of Robert Roberson, at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas State Penitentiary, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Huntsville, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Jennifer Martin, left, and Thomas Roberson, older brother of condemned prisoner Robert Roberson, right, holds signs as they protest outside the prison where Roberson is scheduled for execution at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas State Penitentiary, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Huntsville, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Texas man whose execution was halted by subpoena set to testify to lawmakers
Texas man whose execution was halted by subpoena set to testify to lawmakers
FILE - Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, Sept. 27, 2024. (Criminal Justice Reform Caucus via AP, File)
