Arkansas takes next steps to carry out death sentences
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Aug. 18, 2015
With a new attorney general who bragged in her campaign about being a gun-toting woman, we had reason to expect that Arkansas might gear up its efforts to administer capital punishment to those waiting for justice on the state’s “Death Row.”
Sure enough, last week brought the news that the state Department of Correction has obtained the necessary drugs and established the protocol for lethal injection, which has been the main hangup for much of the past 10 years, during which Arkansas has not carried out a death sentence.
The next step is for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge to submit a letter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, informing him of the names of individuals awaiting the ultimate punishment and asking for dates to be set, and a spokesman indicated she would do so.
Of the 34 inmates on Death Row, eight have exhausted all appeals, according to the spokesman. Those eight include:
• Bruce E. Ward, convicted in Pulaski County for the 1989 murder of an 18-year-old convenience store employee.
• Don W. Davis, convicted in Benton County for the 1990 execution-style murder of a 62-year-old Rogers woman in her home.
• Jack H. Jones Jr., convicted in White County for the 1995 rape and strangulation murder of a 35-year-old bookkeeper at her Bald Knob business. He also beat her 11-year-old daughter severely, but she recovered to identify the killer.
• Kenneth D. Williams, convicted in Lincoln County for murdering a 57-year-old Varner man after escaping from the Cummins prison. He was there serving life in prison without parole for the 1998 slaying of a 19-year-old Pine Bluff cheerleader.
The crimes of the other four killers who have gone through the longer appeals process unsuccessfully are also horrendous, but I’ll spare you further details to get the to point.
Gov. Hutchinson said he will set execution dates once he receives the requests and that he expects further challenges. Arkansas hasn’t carried out a death penalty since 2005, when Eric Nance died for murdering an 18-year-old Malvern girl.
Since then death penalty opponents have delayed the process by challenging execution methods, specifically the combination of drugs used. In other states the so-called “death cocktail” hasn’t always worked as planned, allowing the inmate to feel pain.
Considering that few killers show any concern for their victims’ pain, that’s not something I’d worry about, but the courts properly pay special attention to anything that might constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Some drug manufacturers, particularly in countries that have banned the death penalty, are refusing to sell drugs for use in executions. That lack of available drugs has drastically slowed the rate of executions across this country.
The Arkansas Legislature passed a law this year defining the drugs that can be used in executions but also prohibiting the state from disclosing information that might identify their source. An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter found a June 30 invoice in Department of Corrections records for three drugs that can be used to make the execution cocktail.
It has always amazed me that the same conservative lawmakers who argue against abortion because of the “sanctity of life” can also be gung-ho for the death penalty. Like it or not, both have been determined as the “law of the land.”
Death penalty opponents claim that it’s not a deterrent, and they’re absolutely right — if the state can’t carry out the sentences. But if it’s not a deterrent, why do so many killers agree to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty? Perhaps it’s because a life sentence without parole always gives them a hope for escaping, like Kenneth Williams.
Certainly our criminal justice system is not foolproof, and everyone abhors the thought that an innocent person could be executed. However, that possibility has diminished because we are no longer as eager to administer capital punishment. For many years, until a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court decision, rape was considered a capital offense in some states.
The continuing controversy and the nature of our court system make death sentences more and more infrequent. Earlier this month one juror held out against 11 others who wanted to decide that James Holmes should be executed for killing 12 people in a Colorado theater in 2012. Jury decisions must be unanimous.
And last week the Connecticut Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty law, sparing the lives of 11 convicted killers, including Steve J. Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky. In 2007 they invaded a home near New Haven, raping, robbing and finally murdering Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her two daughters, ages 17 and 11, then setting the house on fire. They thought they had also bludgeoned to death the girls’ father, Dr. William A. Petit Jr., but he escaped.
In neither case was there doubt about guilt. Holmes pleaded insanity; Hayes and Komisarjevsky were arrested in the Petits’ car. At their sentencing hearings both apologized for their crimes, and Hayes said death would be a “welcome relief.” Now the states will put these killers up for life and hopefully make sure they don’t escape.
These two cases, among so many other mass murders, certainly show the need for a death penalty.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.