Arkansas executes 1 inmate, schedules another to die

VARNER, Ark. — Arkansas executed inmate Jack Jones on Monday night and prepared for another lethal injection in what would be the nation’s first double-execution since 2000.

Jones was pronounced dead at 7:20 p.m. Monday night, 14 minutes after the procedure began.

Barring any last-minute stays, inmate Marcel Williams was to have been executed later Monday. Williams had appeals pending.

Jones was sent to death row for the 1995 rape and killing of Mary Phillips. He was also convicted of attempting to kill Phillips’ 11-year-old daughter and was convicted in another rape and killing in Florida.

Jones said this month that he was ready for execution. Jones used a wheelchair, and he’d had a leg amputated in prison because of diabetes.