Beat the clock

This isn’t how it’s supposed to work

THE WORD came slow on a lazy Easter weekend. The executions were off. After daylight service Sunday, newspaper readers found that a couple of legal decisions handed down from the bench meant the executions would at least be postponed. The state would not kill the condemned men . . . yet. At least not six, seven or eight in 10 days. These condemned murderers had a case to make, said a federal judge, inasmuch as the method used to kill them might not be as painless as authorities claim, and the executions could be botched, as in other states. And there was a technical question about where their attorneys would need to be during the executions. Another judge, a circuit judge, agreed with the drug companies that they could protest the use of their chemicals in state- sanctioned killings.

So the news went out. The inmates were said to have seen it on television. Now then, it was time to debate the matters. Matters of life and death. Cautiously. Prudently. As a civilized society should.

—————— Then, FLASH, and FLASH again. Monday afternoon, the emails starting popping. Radio reporters began talking a little faster. Newspaper reporters began making phone calls and typing, typing, typing. Court of Appeals overturns. Federal judge overturned. Ruling overturned. Off to the Supreme Court. Which Supreme Court? The one in Arkansas was heard from. Executions halted. Again.

An attorney in one of the cases told the press in the early afternoon that there would be no executions Monday night.

But somebody asked, what if the Supreme Court in Washington overrules the one in Little Rock? Tick, tick, tick . . . . Attorneys were moving at apace. Execution chambers were readied. Suddenly, men who were told they’d been spared, at least this week, were told otherwise. Families that were told to stand down were now told to stand up. Families of the condemned. Families of their victims. Lawyers rushed into place. Judges many states away took phone calls. Votes were taken. Legal secretaries jotted notes and made calls. What about the Alabama case? somebody asked. Yes, over in Alabama, there’s a criminal case pending before the U. S. Supreme Court. Something about mental exams.

FLASH ( again). The state’s top court was heard from, again. The case in Bama might affect a few in Arkansas. Executions stopped, again. And another appeal was made to Washington. Which court would stop the executions? Or not stop the executions?

In a hurry, 5 p. m. turned into 6 p. m. turned into 7 p. m. turned into near midnight. A last supper was actually prepared and served. Witnesses and media representatives prepared themselves to witness the deed. And . . . .

In the end, come morning, nobody had been executed by the state. That is, by We the People. At 11: 45 p. m. Monday night, the nation’s highest court didn’t overturn a stay of execution by the state’s highest court. There’s the Alabama case to tend to first.

At daybreak, newspaper readers saw that the governor and attorney general haven’t been put off much. They intend to follow through with the other executions this month on the conveyor belt that is Arkansas’ Death Row. All before a drug expires at the end of April. Call it Beat the Clock, for keeps.

Is this really the way matters of life and death should be handled? With a game of phone tag between various judicial chambers, up until the last minutes of a scheduled day? All so the state can beat a deadline for a drug’s expiration?

Or should a matter of life and death be handled more cautiously, carefully, and in a manner that doesn’t involve watching the clock?

Note to the state’s leadership: That last question was rhetorical.