State of Arkansas executes 4 prisoners over 8 days

The state of Arkansas conducted its fourth execution over eight days April 27, putting to death Kenneth Williams, 38, through lethal injections.

The Arkansas Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court turned down an appeal to halt the execution, as they did in the killings of Jack Jones, 52, and Marcel Williams, 46, three days earlier and for Ledell Lee, 51. The executions are the first in the state in 12 years.

Protesters, above, gathered at Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock April 14 to demand a halt to the executions.

With the state’s supply of the drug midazolam set to expire at the end of the month, Gov. Asa Hutchinson had ordered the killings of eight inmates in an 11-day period in April. Four of these were stopped by court orders.

Midazolam is a sedative that is supposed to render inmates unconscious while two other drugs administered afterwards paralyze and kill them. Use of midazolam has resulted in prolonged agony in executions in several states, including Alabama, Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma.

After being administered midazolam, witnesses report Kenneth Williams’ body jerked about 20 times. He was “lurching, jerking, convulsing and coughing,” The Associated Press reported.

Kenneth Williams had been on death row for 17 years for the killing of former deputy prison warden Cecil Boren after escaping from prison. In the getaway, he crashed into a water-delivery truck, killing the driver, Michael Greenwood.

“When he took my father from us, Mr. Williams caused us all a great deal of pain,” Michael Greenwood’s daughter Kayla wrote to the governor. “That does not mean that asking you [to] spare Mr. Williams is not the right thing to do. It is.”

She had heard that Williams’ daughter Jasmine was trying to raise funds to see her father before the execution. She got Jasmine’s phone number from Williams’ lawyer and called her. Greenwood’s family paid for her ticket to come see her father, and Kayla and other family members drove her to the prison where the meeting took place. Prison officials refused to allow the Greenwood family members to meet with Williams.

— BRIAN WILLIAMS