The Latest: 2 condemned inmates served last meals
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Latest on Arkansas’ attempt to carry out the nation’s first double execution since 2000 (all times local):
5:40 p.m.
Arkansas is moving forward with preparations to conduct the first double execution in the U.S. since 2000.
No stays are in place for inmates Jack Jones and Marcel Williams, though both have legal challenges pending. The first execution is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Solomon Graves says the inmates were both served last meals Monday afternoon. According to Graves, Jones had fried chicken, potato logs with tartar sauce, beef jerky bites, three candy bars, a chocolate milkshake and fruit punch.
Graves says Williams had fried chicken, banana pudding, nachos, two sodas and potato logs with ketchup.
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5:10 p.m.
A condemned Arkansas inmate is again asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to stop his execution, arguing that his previous attorney plagiarized a court filing.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to stop Marcel Williams’ execution, one of two planned for Monday night. In a late afternoon court filing, Williams asked justices for a stay of execution so he can argue claims that his prior attorneys were ineffectual.
The court filing says that nearly 10 pages of an earlier appeal “was cut and pasted verbatim from a 1961 United States Supreme Court case.”
Williams is also asking the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay, saying that his trial attorneys did not present evidence of abuse that Williams suffered as a child during sentencing.
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2:30 p.m.
A federal appeals panel has rejected another legal challenge for an Arkansas inmate set for lethal injection as the state presses forward with its plan to conduct the first double execution in the U.S. since 2000.
Marcel Williams had argued that his morbid obesity and diabetes could lead to “severe pain and serious harm” during his lethal injection Monday night. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Williams’ request for stay Monday afternoon.
Jack Jones, the other inmate facing execution Monday night, has also lost his appeals so far and is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his lethal injection.
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12:40 p.m.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has rejected requests for stays of execution from two inmates set to die in the nation’s first double execution since 2000.
Jack Jones Jr. and Marcel Williams had asked the state’s highest court to stop their executions, which are set for Monday night. Arkansas is trying to use a sedative that expires at the end of the month, and if the men don’t receive lethal injections as scheduled their executions will be off indefinitely. The state has said it has no new source for midazolam.
In separate one-paragraph orders, justices said they would not reopen the men’s cases and refused to issue stays of execution.
Jones is scheduled to die at 7 p.m., with Williams’ execution set for 8:15 p.m.
A federal appeals court on Monday also rejected a stay request for Jones, while a stay request from Williams is still pending.
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12 p.m.
A federal appeals court has rejected an Arkansas inmate’s request for a stay of execution for the rape and killing of a woman more than two decades ago.
Jack Jones Jr. says his lethal injection could be cruel and unusual because he is diabetic and overweight. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his request Monday, hours before his scheduled execution.
Jones was convicted of raping and strangling Mary Phillips at a Bald Knob accounting office on June 6, 1995. He said that while the courts have upheld Arkansas’ lethal injection protocol in general, the drugs will have a different impact on him because of his poor health. The court rejected his argument, and also said he should have filed his challenge earlier.
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1 a.m.
Two condemned Arkansas killers who admit they’re guilty but fear poor health could lead to extreme pain during lethal injections might become the first inmates put to death in a double execution in the U.S. in more than 16 years.
Jack Jones and Marcel Williams are set to die Monday night. If put to death, they would be the second and third Arkansas inmates executed this month. Arkansas originally wanted to execute eight inmates before one of its lethal injection drugs expires at the end of the month in the nation’s most aggressive execution schedule since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976.
Arkansas put Ledell Lee to death last week in its first execution since 2005. Another inmate, Kenneth Williams, is set for execution Thursday.
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