Prison chief describes executions

As a federal trial on the constitutionality of Arkansas’ three-drug lethal injection protocol began winding down Wednesday, the director of the state’s prison system offered a unique glimpse into activities in the death chamber during the April 2017 executions of four men.

Wendy Kelley, director of the state Department of Correction, also described for U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker the conversations she had with the condemned men in the days before their scheduled deaths and the department’s methodical preparations to ensure the process went smoothly.

Eighteen death-row inmates contend the state’s lethal injection protocol violates their rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment because the first drug, midazolam, cannot sedate them deeply enough.

A lawsuit first filed in 2017 — before the state raced to execute eight inmates in 11 days because its midazolam supply was soon to expire — has since been joined by intervening plaintiffs who have cited perceived glitches in the 2017 executions as further proof midazolam is ineffective.

Following up on testimony a day earlier from William Straughn, warden at the Cummins Unit where the death chamber is, Kelley said she and members of the team chosen to insert the inmates’ intravenous lines met with the death-row inmates individually at the Varner Unit a few days before the executions.

Kelley was in the death chamber during all four executions, beginning with Ledell Lee. She said she asked Lee if he had any final words and he didn’t answer. She said “he appeared to me to be scared,” unable to make his lips form any words, “like somebody wanting to cry.”

Jones, who was executed next, received a sedative beforehand, as well as an early dose of his regular prescription of methadone, which Kelley said she authorized. Other than making a snoring sound, Kelley said, Jones made no other sounds or movements once the injections began.

With Marcel Williams, she said he was initially taken into the chamber, before she told him a stay had been granted. Asked by Catherine Cryer, senior assistant attorney general, about the testimony of a witness, Jamie Giani, who described Marcel Williams’ chest moving in a jerky manner and his head moving slightly, Kelley said neither happened.

Kenneth Williams, the last person to be executed, she said about a minute after the midazolam was injected, “the trunk of his body — his chest — came off the table and hit the table, like he was coughing but there wasn’t a coughing sound.” She said his body moved rhythmically for about 10 seconds, fast at first and then slower, but he had no facial expression and his hands didn’t clench. Other than his torso hitting the table, she said, there were no sounds.

While at least one other witness described seeing Williams’ head moving and hearing him coughing or moaning, even convulsing, she said neither occurred.