Arkansas wraps up string of planned executions
The US state of Arkansas has put to death the fourth inmate in eight days, wrapping up an aggressive schedule of lethal injections accelerated because the state's supply of an execution drug was about to expire.
Convicted murderer Kenneth Williams, 38, was pronounced dead Wednesday at 11:05 pm, 13 minutes after he received a lethal injection at the Cummins Unit prison at Varner.
State officials initially scheduled eight prisoners to be executed over 10 days, the fastest pace of executions in decades. The courts, however, blocked four of the executions after last-minute appeals.
Williams was sentenced to death for killing Cecil Boren, a former deputy warden, after he escaped from jail in 1999. At the time, Williams was serving a life sentence for the murder of Dominique Hurd, a college cheerleader, the year before.
“I extend my sincerest of apologies to the families I have senselessly wronged and deprived of their loved ones,” he said in a final statement from the death chamber. “I was more than wrong. The crimes I perpetrated against you all was senseless, extremely hurtful and inexcusable.”
Arkansas uses a combination of three drugs in its lethal injection process, one of which will reach its expiration date on Sunday.
The drug in question, midazolam, was employed in botched executions in Oklahoma and Arizona, where witnesses said the inmates suffered excruciating pain on the gurney.
A prison spokesman said Williams shook for approximately 10 seconds, about three minutes into the lethal injection.
The unprecedented string of executions has drawn sharp condemnations from rights groups and unleashed a wave of legal challenges.
Read more:
- US state to hold historic double execution
- Arkansas carries out first in series of executions
- US state to execute 8 inmates in 10 days
State authorities have declared the fast pace of executions a success for the justice system and a “closure” for the victims’ families.
"The long path of justice ended tonight and Arkansans can reflect on the last two weeks with confidence that our system of laws in this state has worked,” Governor Asa Hutchinson said in a statement shortly after Williams' death was announced.
Lawyers representing Williams argued that he had "sickle cell trait, Lupus and organic brain damage," medical conditions that could subject death-row inmates to extreme pain during execution in violation of the US Constitution.
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