U.S. judge temporarily halts second Arkansas execution

[webfact]

U.S. judge temporarily halts second Arkansas execution

By Steve Barnes

REUTERS

 

Inmate Jack Jones is shown in this booking photo provided March 21, 2017. Jones is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Arkansas, April 24, 2017. Courtesy Arkansas Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS

 

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Reuters) - A U.S. judge temporarily halted the second of Arkansas' two planned executions late on Monday after the inmate's lawyers argued that the first execution was inhumane due to a flawed procedure.

 

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker in Little Rock, Arkansas, issued a one-lineorder staying the execution of Marcel Williams until 8:30 p.m. CDT (0130 GMT) or until she releases another order, whichever is later.

 

The stay came just minutes before Williams, 46, was scheduled to begin undergoing the lethal injection process and approximately an hour after Jack Jones, 52, was pronounced dead by state officials.

 

Arkansas is attempting to become the first state to put two people to death on the same day since Texas in 2000.

 

Jones was convicted of raping and killing Mary Phillips, 34, in 1995 and trying to murder her 11-year-old daughter. He also was convicted of rape and murder in Florida.

 

Williams was convicted of the 1997 kidnapping, rape and murder of 22-year-old Stacy Errickson. He also abducted and raped two other women.

 

Williams' lawyers filed a last-minute appeal with Baker claiming that Jones was still moving more than five minutes after he received a sedative, midazolam, that is supposed to render inmates unconscious.

 

"Because Mr. Jones' execution appeared to be tortuous and inhumane, Mr. Williams moves for an immediate stay of his execution pending further review of the Jones execution in this court," defense attorney John Williams wrote.

 

That description did not appear to match initial observations from reporters witnessing the execution, who said Jones' lips were seen moving after he finished his last words but did not describe any undue signs of distress, according to local media reports.

 

Jones apologized to the young girl he left for dead, now a grown woman.

 

"I hope over time you could learn who I really am and I am not a monster," he said, according to reporter witnesses.

 

Governor Asa Hutchinson said he hoped carrying out the sentence after 20 years would bring closure to Mary Phillips's loved ones.

 

The 11th-hour stay for Williams came after the U.S. Supreme Court and the Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday denied a flurry of appeals by both men.

 

Jones was the second inmate executed in Arkansas since 2005, after the state put Ledell Lee to death last week.

 

The men were among eight inmates that Arkansas had initially planned to execute in 11 days this month, prompted by the impending expiration date of the state's supplies of midazolam, a sedative used as part of the three-drug protocol.

 

The drug was used in flawed executions in Oklahoma and Arizona, where witnesses said the inmates writhed in apparent pain on the gurney. No problems were reported in Lee's execution on Thursday.

 

Both Jones and Williams had argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that their obesity put them at heightened risk of pain due to midazolam. The court rejected those claims without comment.

 

Four of the planned executions have been put on hold by court order. Arkansas has scheduled a final execution for April on Thursday.

 

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bill Trott)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-25

[humqdpf]

No one is going to claim that these guys are not monsters but here is a point about cruel and unusual punishment. The state should never encourage or give example of cruel and unusual punishment. Even if you are pro-capital punishment, telling someone that they are on for today, then strapping them to the gurney and then telling them "not today" has got to be cruel and unusual by any definition. You either get on with it or you don't

 

I also find it completely distasteful that the state of Arkansas is competing with Texas to be the next state to have executed two persons on the same day. The moral argument for capital punishment is based on two possible issues - moral equivalence/retribution (you wilfully take a life and the people in the form of the state takes yours) and deterrence (kill people and this is what will happen to you). These messages get muddied when the state appears to be bloodthirsty and it becomes a question of the criminal thinking that he only does what the state does anyway, namely killing people, the only difference being that the state officials think they have found a reason.

[malibukid]

U.S.  still barbaric

[williamgeorgeallen]

how do you become so fat in jail?

[Jingthing]

how do you become so fat in jail?

Lots of reasons. The food they get fed is crap and they can supplement with processed foods from the commissary.

[Langsuan Man]

I guess the temporary nature of the order was really temporary

 

Quote

Arkansas put to death two men Monday night in the first back-to-back executions in the United States since 2000.

Jack Harold Jones and Marcel Wayne Williams were among eight inmates set for execution in April before the state's supply of a lethal injection drug expires at the end of the month.

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/24/us/arkansas-executions/