Silence In Execution Chamber Leaves Questions About What Happened

(Arkansas Department of Correction via AP, File).

Pro-death penalty supporters Dalton Campbell, left, Zia Authier and Donald Laundreaux, protest outside the Varner Unit on Monday, April 24, 2017 near Varner, Ark. Jack Jones was 52-years-old.

Arkansas has used midazolam in a far larger single dose than what was used in the problematic executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona. The top photo, provided by the ADC, shows a bottle of Midazolam, with the manufacturer's information blacked out by the ADC.

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.

The governor of Arkansas has praised prison staff for the "flawless" killing of two death row inmates in one night as the state races to carry out a series of executions by the end of the month.

Republican Rep. Kim Hammer, who witnessed both executions Monday night, said he did not see Jones gasp or gulp for air. An open microphone could have settled the question.

Robert Dunham, a former director of the Death Penalty Info Centre, put Arkansas's expiry date consideration into blunt terms.

Both men were served last meals on Monday afternoon, Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Solomon Graves said.

Jones was the second inmate executed in Arkansas since 2005 after the state put Ledell Lee to death last week. Several other states have similar policies.

Public support for capital punishment in the United States has been steadily declining in recent decades.

Searcy Daily Citizen reporter Tracy Whitaker said Jones appeared coherent as he delivered a two-minute statement focusing on Phillips' daughter, Lacey.

Lawyers for 46-year-old Marcel Williams won a brief delay in his execution as a judge considered their concerns about how the first execution was carried out, but the judge lifted the stay an hour later and the second execution proceeded. A judge rejected his plea. The attorneys, according to the filing, argued that Williams, who was obese, could face a "torturous" and "inhumane" death because of his weight. He gave a lengthy last statement, with his final words: "I'm sorry". The lawyers say the inmates' current medical issues - and drugs used to treat them - might interfere with the lethal injection protocol and cause them to feel extreme pain.

The first double execution in the United States in almost 17 years happened last night in the state of Arkansas.

At Huntsville, Texas, in the 1980s, there was no glass wall separating the witnesses from the condemned, though at times it was hard to hear if the prisoner mumbled or spoke softly.

Drugs for lethal injections have been increasingly hard for states to obtain because "drug companies have refused to sell their products for the goal of executions", according to the New York Times.

Kelly Gissendaner sang "Amazing Grace" from the gurney in Georgia in a voice loud enough for witnesses to listen.

He says hearing the execution is as important as seeing it.

The poor health of both men, their lawyers claimed, could make it hard for them to respond during a consciousness check following a megadose of midazolam.