Arkansas inmate’s life in hands of Supreme Court
Legal team files final appeal against scheduled execution
VARNER, ARK.— Arkansas prepared to execute its fourth inmate in eight days Thursday night, wrapping up an accelerated schedule of lethal injections that was set to beat the expiration date of one of the drugs.
Kenneth Williams, 38, was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Thursday, but the state was awaiting word from the U.S. Supreme Court on Williams’ last appeals before moving forward. His death warrant expires at midnight.
Court filings Thursday afternoon followed two threads: that Arkansas executions this week were so flawed that there is little doubt Williams will suffer as he dies, and that he has an intellectual disability that would make him ineligible for execution.
So far, courts have ruled against him, with both the Arkansas Supreme Court and a federal appeals court rejecting Williams’ requests for stays. A spokesperson for Gov. Asa Hutchinson says the state will not proceed with the execution until the high court weighs in.
If Williams dies, it would be Arkansas’ fourth execution in eight days after not conducting one since 2005. Two of the men died in a double execution Monday, the nation’s first since 2000.
Williams was sentenced to death for killing former deputy warden Cecil Boren after escaping from the Cummins Unit prison in a 500-gallon barrel of hog slop in 1999. He left the prison less than three weeks into a life term for killing University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff cheerleader Dominique Hurd in 1998.
After stealing Boren’s vehicle, he drove to Missouri where he crashed into a water-delivery truck, killing the driver, Michael Greenwood. While in prison, he confessed to killing another person in 1998. Greenwood’s family wrote to Hutchinson asking for clemency for the inmate.
However, Gov. Hutchinson said, “Kenneth Williams murdered multiple people, and actions have consequences.”