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US supreme court blocks Arkansas from flurry of executions US supreme court blocks Arkansas from flurry of executions
(about 1 hour later)
The US supreme court has refused to allow Arkansas to go ahead with a planned execution on Monday night, preventing the state from embarking on a schedule of putting to death up to six prisoners in 11 days, in what would have been the most intense burst of judicial killings in more than 50 years. The US supreme court has ended a dramatic day of legal tussles over Arkansas’ unprecedented plan to execute eight prisoners in 11 days, declining to allow the state to go ahead with Monday night’s scheduled killings in what amounted to a major victory for the condemned inmates’ lawyers and anti-death penalty campaigners.
Until the decision came down from the nation’s highest court at 11.50pm, the state had been frantically preparing for the execution of Don Davis, 54, to go ahead. Witnesses had been put in place in the death chamber, and the execution team was readied. The nation’s highest court took several hours to reach its decision, finally announcing at 11.50pm that it had declined to lift a stay on the execution of Don Davis, 54, imposed earlier in the day by the supreme court of Arkansas.
But when the decision was announced it came as a blow to the audacious ambitions of the state and to the Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, to kill – initially – as many as eight prisoners on four separate dates between now and 27 April. The governor had tried to justify the schedule by pointing to the expiry date of one of its lethal injection drugs, midazolam, at the end of the month. The ruling brought to three the number of condemned prisoners who have now been spared the audacious execution schedule set by Republican governor Asa Hutchinson in a rush to use a batch of the lethal injection drug midazolam before it expires at the end of the month.
Davis was convicted of murdering Jane Daniel on 12 October 1990. He broke into her home to rob it, and finding her inside asked her for her possessions and then shot her in the back of the head. The US supreme court effectively dealt a bloody nose to Hutchinson at the start of his planned 11-day killing spree, which – had it gone according to plan – would have been the most intense burst of executions in the US in more than 50 years.
“What I did was an act of cowardice; it was cold blooded; it was evil,” the condemned man told an interviewer recently. Asked whether he regretted his action, he said: “You have no idea. There is nothing I wouldn’t give to take back moment. There is nothing that I can do.” The outcome is certain to embolden the defense lawyers of the remaining five death-row inmates who still face the gurney, starting with Stacey Johnson and Ledell Lee on Thursday.
Until the decision came down from the US supreme court, officials with the Arkansas department of corrections had been frantically preparing for the execution to go ahead. Davis had been given his final meal of fried chicken, great northern beans, mashed potatoes, fruit punch, and strawberry cake for dessert; witnesses had been put in place in the death chamber, and the execution team was readied.
Hutchinson tried to put a brave face on the night’s news. In a statement, he said: “While this has been an exhausting day for all involved, tomorrow we will continue to fight back on last-minute appeals and efforts to block justice for the victims’ families.”
The governor’s spokesman JR Davis encouraged people to reflect on the impact of the ruling on the families of Don Davis’ victim, Jane Daniel, whom he murdered at her home on 12 October 1990. Bruce Ward, who was convicted of killing 18-year-old teenager Rebecca Doss in the same year, was also spared execution after two separate stays were placed in his case by Arkansas courts.
“Justice in these cases were provided by a jury 27, 28 years ago, who sentenced Ward and Davis to death, and yet again tonight justice has not been served,” Davis said. “When you have to tell a mother and a husband tonight that justice isn’t coming, that’s a tough message to deliver.”
Hutchinson had been buoyed on Monday evening by a ruling from the eighth circuit appeals court in St Louis, Missouri, which overturned an earlier temporary injunction imposed by a federal judge. That opened up the possibility that at least six executions might still go ahead between now and the end of April.Hutchinson had been buoyed on Monday evening by a ruling from the eighth circuit appeals court in St Louis, Missouri, which overturned an earlier temporary injunction imposed by a federal judge. That opened up the possibility that at least six executions might still go ahead between now and the end of April.
The attorney general, Leslie Rutledge, asked the US supreme court to allow the Davis execution to proceed in a move that was counter-challenged by the condemned inmate’s attorneys. Asked earlier on Monday evening whether the Davis execution could still take place according to schedule, a spokesman for the department of corrections said: “Never say never.” Scott Braden, an attorney for Davis, said the US supreme court justices – who now include Neil Gorsuch, participating in his first major death penalty decision as the new ninth justice – had heard that Davis had been denied proper independent counsel on the question of his mental health.
The state had still been pressing forward with moves to prepare Davis for death on Monday. The prisoner was transferred from his supermax prison to the Cummins unit in south-west Arkansas that houses the death chamber, and on Monday afternoon was offered a final meal of fried chicken, great northern beans, mashed potatoes, fruit punch, and strawberry cake for dessert.
Families of Davis’ victim were also brought to the prison to be ready to witness his demise should the execution go ahead.
“We’re in place and ready to go for whatever the court rules,” a spokesman for Hutchinson said.
Attorneys for Davis had been actively fighting to keep him alive, as the state actively pressed to have him killed. Scott Braden, an attorney for the prisoner, said that one argument they were using with the US supreme court justices – who now include Neil Gorsuch, participating in his first major death penalty decision as the new ninth justice – was that Davis had been denied proper independent counsel on the question of his mental health.
“Mr Davis has organic brain damage, intellectual disability, a history of head injuries, fetal alcohol syndrome, and other severe mental health conditions,” Braden said.“Mr Davis has organic brain damage, intellectual disability, a history of head injuries, fetal alcohol syndrome, and other severe mental health conditions,” Braden said.
Arkansas’ plan to carry out initially eight quick-fire executions in less than two weeks has never before been attempted in the modern era of the US death penalty. Even double executions on the same day are rare – the last time it was attempted, by Oklahoma in 2014, it led to a “bloody mess”. Attention now swings to the next set of executions on Thursday and beyond. The governor’s spokesman underlined the determination of the state to press on with its grim timescale. “We will continue, on Thursday, on Monday and then Thursday,” Davis said, referring to the schedule of death warrants that allows for two executions to take place on each of the next two set dates, and one on 27 April.
But lawyers for the next prisoners set to die are already gearing up for a Herculean fight that is certain to mirror the tense drama of the past few days. The influential Innocence Project has joined local defence lawyers in Arkansas to call for DNA testing in the case of Johnson, scheduled to die on Thursday, and the ACLU has also now filed on behalf of Lee on grounds of DNA testing and innocence, and intellectual disability.
Given the fact that a new death warrant would have to be set for Davis and Ward, and that the process of final review of their cases would then restart from scratch, it is understood that there is not time to put their executions back on train this month before the midazolam runs out. A third prisoner among the initial eight, Jason McGehee, has also dropped off the list after a parole board recommended him for clemency last week.
Arkansas’ initial plan to carry out eight quick-fire executions in less than two weeks has never before been attempted in the modern era of the US death penalty. Even double executions on the same day are rare – the last time it was attempted, by Oklahoma in 2014, it led to a “bloody mess”.
Arkansas has not held any executions since 2005. Its highly contentious stance has provoked an outpouring of opposition, including an appearance by actor Johnny Depp at a protest rally on Friday, a critical opinion article from the legal thriller writer and Arkansas native John Grisham, and a stream of impassioned tweets from Sister Helen Prejean, the anti-death penalty campaigner who was the subject of the movie Dead Man Walking.Arkansas has not held any executions since 2005. Its highly contentious stance has provoked an outpouring of opposition, including an appearance by actor Johnny Depp at a protest rally on Friday, a critical opinion article from the legal thriller writer and Arkansas native John Grisham, and a stream of impassioned tweets from Sister Helen Prejean, the anti-death penalty campaigner who was the subject of the movie Dead Man Walking.
Further protests were to be held outside Hutchinson’s official residence in Little Rock. Further protests were held on Monday night outside Hutchinson’s official residence in Little Rock.
The eighth circuit appeal overturned a 101-page ruling on Saturday by the federal district judge Kristine Baker, in which she questioned the reliability of midazolam, the sedative that is used as the first chemical in Arkansas’ triple lethal injection protocol. The drug has been used in recent botched executions in Oklahoma and other states, and its use has been questioned by experts who point out that it is a sedative and not an anaesthetic designed to render individuals unconscious. The eighth circuit appeal overturned a 101-page ruling on Saturday by the federal district judge Kristine Baker, in which she questioned the reliability of midazolam, the sedative that is used as the first chemical in Arkansas’ triple lethal injection protocol. Its use has been questioned by experts who point out that it is not an anaesthetic designed to render individuals unconscious.
“If midazolam does not adequately anaesthetise plaintiffs, or if their executions are ‘botched’, they will suffer severe pain before they die,” Baker wrote in her opinion.“If midazolam does not adequately anaesthetise plaintiffs, or if their executions are ‘botched’, they will suffer severe pain before they die,” Baker wrote in her opinion.
Hutchinson has claimed the death protocol would be carried out humanely and argued the rapid series of executions is necessary to use up a batch of midazolam before it expires on 30 April. Strict distribution controls imposed by more than 30 drug companies in the US and abroad have made it very difficult for death penalty states to lay their hands on medicines for use in the death chamber. Hutchinson has claimed the death protocol would be carried out humanely and argued the rapid series of executions is necessary to use up the batch of midazolam before it expires on 30 April. Strict distribution controls imposed by more than 30 drug companies in the US and abroad have made it very difficult for death penalty states to lay their hands on medicines for use in the death chamber.
The state’s supreme court added more fuel to the fire on Monday when it ordered a circuit judge in Pulaski County to be barred from hearing any further death penalty cases. The judge, Wendell Griffen, had placed an injunction on all the pending executions after McKesson, a major medical supplier, sued the state for misleading it over the acquisition of one of the lethal injection drugs.The state’s supreme court added more fuel to the fire on Monday when it ordered a circuit judge in Pulaski County to be barred from hearing any further death penalty cases. The judge, Wendell Griffen, had placed an injunction on all the pending executions after McKesson, a major medical supplier, sued the state for misleading it over the acquisition of one of the lethal injection drugs.
Later that day, Griffen joined an anti-death penalty protest outside the governor’s mansion and lay down in a cot to simulate the gurney. A disciplinary panel has been asked to address his actions.Later that day, Griffen joined an anti-death penalty protest outside the governor’s mansion and lay down in a cot to simulate the gurney. A disciplinary panel has been asked to address his actions.