Date With Justice

Despite setbacks, state still plans to execute killer of De Queen woman

On Monday, Arkansas was supposed to begin a series of executions that would take the lives of eight condemned murderers over a period of 10 days. Didn’t work out that way. The state has drawn a lot of heat for the scheduled executions—the first in Arkansas in a dozen years. There have been protests and court challenges.

The protests attracted celebrities and media coverage. The court filings got results.

The two men set to die Monday, Don Davis and Bruce Ward, were both granted stays. The Arkansas Supreme Court intervened in Ward’s case while Davis’ fate went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. So for now there is no telling when or if either man will meet the gurney.

But the state says there is no bar to two executions set for Thursday night. One of the men has area ties. Stacey Johnson was given the death penalty for the April 1993 murder of Carol Jean Heath in De Queen. Heath’s two young children were at home when their mother was beaten, cut and strangled.

Ledell Lee, convicted of the 1993 beating death of a woman in Jacksonville, is also scheduled to be executed Thursday.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge says the state will continue with the remaining executions and fight any attempt to stop them. We’ll see. We support capital punishment. We do not see it as cruel, nor do we believe it to be unconstitutional. But the state may have overplayed its hand here.

Even those in favor of the death penalty can get squeamish in some cases. That’s why states seldom execute women and why multiple executions are quite rare. It may be that these executions were just too high-profile and invited court intervention.

We hope Arkansas is able to carry out Thursday’s executions. Carol Jean Heath’s friends and loved ones have been waiting a long time for justice. But we will have to wait and see.