State prepares to wrap up execution schedule

VARNER, ARK. >> Arkansas prepared to execute its fourth inmate in eight days Thursday night, wrapping up an accelerated schedule of lethal injections that was set to beat the expiration date of one of the drugs.

Kenneth Williams, 38, is scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Thursday, barring any lastminute court orders. Court filings Thursday afternoon followed two threads: that Arkansas executions this week were so flawed that there is little doubt Williams will suffer as he dies, and that he has an intellectual disability that would make him ineligible for execution.

So far, courts have ruled against him, with both the Arkansas Supreme Court and a federal appeals court rejecting Williams’ requests for stays. His appeals were pending at the U.S. Supreme Court.

If Williams dies, it would be Arkansas’ fourth execution in eight days after not conducting one since 2005. Two of the men died in a double execution Monday, the nation’s first since 2000.