Arkansas rules on inmate’s lethal injection plea

LITTLE ROCK: The Arkansas Parole Board recommended yesterday that an inmate’s request to be spared from lethal injection be rejected, the third clemency bid knocked down this week as the state prepares to conduct four double executions next month.

The board ruled that Marcel Williams’ clemency request was without merit, though the ultimate decision rests with governor Asa Hutchinson.

The Republican governor has scheduled all eight executions before Arkansas’ supply of midazolam, a sedative the state plans to use as one of three drugs in the executions, expires at the end of next month. Hutchinson didn’t indicate when he would make a decision.

Yesterday’s decision means the board has now rejected three of the five inmates who asked the board to spare their lives. Hearings on the two remaining clemency requests are set for tomorrow. The remaining three men scheduled for execution have not requested clemency.

Williams, 46, was convicted of raping and suffocating Stacy Errickson in 1994. Prosecutors say Williams abducted the young mother when she stopped for petrol in Jacksonville, drove her to various ATMs and forced her take out about $350. Her body was found in a park two weeks later.

Williams confessed to the killing. “I wish I could take it back, but I can’t,” he told the board on Monday.

The rejection came as two new bids to halt the executions were filed.

Convicted murderer Stacey Eugene Johnson asked the state Supreme Court yesterday to stay his execution scheduled for April 20. The parole board on Monday recommended Hutchinson reject clemency bids by Johnson and Ledell Lee, also scheduled to die on April 20.

Johnson asked justices to allow him to seek new testing of evidence from his conviction in the 1993 death of Carol Heath. The evidence includes hairs found at Heath’s apartment.

In another filing, Bruce Ward – set to die on April 17 – asked a judge to halt his execu- tion. Attorneys for Ward, who was convicted in the slaying of Rebecca Lynn Doss, said the inmate had schizophrenia and had no rational understanding of his impending execution.

Arkansas hasn’t carried out a double execution since 1999. No state in the modern era has executed that many prisoners in 10 days.

Nearly two dozen former prison officials sent Hutchinson a letter yesterday, urging him to reconsider the multiple execution schedule, citing concerns about the stress on staff and risk of errors.

Hutchinson said the Arkansas prison system was satisfied with the schedule and confident in its ability to carry out its protocols. – ANA-AP

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