Arkansas moves forward with 4th lethal injection

VARNER (AP) — Arkansas won approval from the nation's highest court to execute its fourth inmate in eight days Thursday night, allowing the state to wrap up an accelerated schedule of lethal injections that was set to beat the expiration date of one of the drugs.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from Kenneth Williams, allowing officials to proceed with plans to put the condemned killer to death. The state had initially held off on executing Williams, 38, who was scheduled to die at 7 p.m., as officials awaited word from the high court. There were no dissents in the court's orders.

Prison officials summoned media witnesses shortly after the court's ruling was handed down. Williams' death warrant expires at midnight.

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.

Williams 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.

State officials have said the three executions already conducted — of Ledell Lee, Jack Jones Jr. and Marcel Williams — didn't go awry. And their lawyers told the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday that while tests showed Kenneth Williams might have "low average" intelligence, he didn't cooperate fully with the doctors testing him. They also said Williams' previous lawyers "unequivocally abandoned" a similar claim because testing showed he wasn't intellectually disabled. The 8th Circuit judges agreed and refused to stop the execution.