The two Arkansas inmates scheduled to be put to death Monday, April 24, 2017, in what could be the nation's first double execution in more than 16 years have asked an appeals court to halt their lethal injections because of poor health.
The judge ultimately allowed the second execution to go ahead after a hastily arranged 20-minute hearing by phone, marking the nation's first double execution on one day in almost 17 years, but the widely varying witness accounts of the first execution illustrate the risks that have made efforts to put more than one inmate to death in a day so rare.
Williams was executed at 10:33 p.m.by lethal injection on the same gurney where fellow inmate Jack Jones died at 7:20 p.m.
Williams was convicted in the 1994 rape and murder of Stacy Errickson.
In 1995, Jones raped, beat, and strangled Mary Phillips, who was 34.
He was also convicted of rape and murder in Florida. According to a court filing, during Jones's execution, he was "moving his lips and gulping for air", which suggests he continued to be conscious during the lethal injection. He used a wheelchair and he'd had a leg amputated in prison because of diabetes. Three executions have been carried out (including the two Monday); one more is scheduled this week; and four are on hold as inmates exhaust their final appeals.
Before his death, Jones issued a statement of apology to his victims and their families.
The government of Arkansas executed two men Monday evening despite concerns from attorneys that the first state killing had been "torturous and inhumane". "The U.S. Supreme Court denied those claims without comment".
The state has decided not to appeal a stay of execution for Arkansas Death Row inmate Jason McGehee.
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Both inmates were served similar last meals. One prisoner was executed last week - the state's first since 2005. But death penalty appeals nearly always are referred to the entire court.
Justice Samuel Alito said for a conservative majority that arguments the drug could not be used effectively in executions were speculative, and he dismissed problems in executions in Arizona and Oklahoma as "having little probative value for present purposes". The stay was later lifted and Williams was executed.
Four inmates have won reprieves, but Jones and Williams were the second and third to be executed and a fourth inmate faces death on Thursday.
Lee's execution followed a flurry of court rulings Thursday, capped by the US Supreme Court's denial of multiple requests for stays of execution. Less often, it's the state that seeks permission to proceed after a lower court has blocked an execution.
Associated Press witnesses in Arizona and OH said they could hear inmates breathe heavily, snore or snort during lengthy executions, and a lawyer at Joseph Wood's execution in Arizona in 2014 said the inmate could be heard particularly when a microphone was on during periodic updates.
When both executions were finished, a spokesman for Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said the procedures were "flawless".
"I am not a monster; there is a reason those things happened that day", Jones said, according to the New York Times.
He also abducted and raped two other women.
Amnesty International said it was a "shameful day", and that the state was treating people "as though they have a sell-by date".
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