Kenneth Williams was executed by the State of Arkansas for double murder following a prison escape. According to court documents Kenneth Williams was serving a life sentence for kidnapping and murder when he escaped from prison and would go on to murder two more people. Kenneth Williams would be executed by lethal injection on April 28, 2017
Kenneth Williams More News
Arkansas has put to death its fourth inmate within a week after a dozen years without a single execution.
Kenneth Williams, 38, killed two people after escaping from a maximum-security prison where he was serving life for murdering a cheerleader.
His lawyers said he was intellectually disabled, but the US Supreme Court rejected his last appeal.
The four executions were carried out before the state’s supply of a drug used in lethal injections could expire.
Williams was pronounced dead at 23:05 (04:05 GMT Friday), after briefly coughing and convulsing, witnesses said.
Convicted murderer Ledell Lee was first to be put to death last Thursday.
State prosecutors have vowed to appeal and put them to death as well.
Williams was sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 murder of 19-year-old cheerleader Dominique Hurd. A jury had spared him the death penalty.
After a month in the penitentiary, he escaped on 3 October 1999 by hiding in a barrel used to carry kitchen refuse.
Not far from the prison, he encountered Cecil Boren, 57, on his farm.
He killed Mr Boren, shooting him multiple times, and stole his pick-up truck.
Williams drove north to Missouri, where he led police on a chase that caused the death of 24-year-old delivery driver Michael Greenwood.
Since being jailed, Williams has become an ordained Christian minister, and written his autobiography as well as a book warning against gang life.
Mr Greenwood’s daughter sent a letter on Thursday to Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, appealing for clemency.
“His execution will not bring my father back or return to us what has been taken, but it will cause additional suffering,” Kayla Greenwood wrote.
She said her family had bought plane tickets for Williams’ daughter and granddaughter to visit him one last time, even picking them up at the airport and driving them to the prison.
But the state’s Republican governor said the inmate did not deserve mercy.
“Kenneth Williams murdered multiple people, and actions have consequences,” said Mr Hutchinson in a statement.
Mr Boren’s widow, who was to watch the execution, said earlier she was looking forward to seeing justice served.
“We’ve been waiting a long, long time for this,” Genie Boren told local news station Fox 16.
“People have to be punished for things they’ve done.”
The accelerated execution timetable was scheduled because the state’s stock of a sedative, midazolam, used in lethal injections is due to expire at the end of this month.
Marcel Williams was executed by the State of Arkansas for the sexual assault and murder ofa woman in 1994. According to court documents Marcel Williams would kidnap, sexually assault, murder and rob Stacy Errickson, Marcel Williams would be executed by lethal injection on April 24, 2017
Marcel Williams More News
On November 20, 1994, Stacy Errickson, the victim, on her way to work, stopped at the Jacksonville Shellstop for gas. The time was approximately 6:45 a.m. Williams approached Errickson’s vehicle, drew a firearm, and forced her to move from the driver’s seat to the passenger’s side. Williams then drove Errickson’s car away from the convenience store. Williams then took Errickson to several automated teller machines and coerced her to attempt withdrawals. A total of eighteen transactions yielded the sum of $350. The last transaction occurred at 7:37 a.m. These transactions were recorded by security cameras at several banking facilities. Stacy Errickson did not make it to work that day, nor did she pick up her child from the babysitter at the end of the day.
Police arrested Williams on an outstanding warrant on November 29, 1994, and questioned him based on physical evidence linking him to two other assaults on women. During the course of an intensive interrogation lasting some thirteen hours, Williams admitted having abducted Errickson from the convenience store and robbing her through ATM withdrawals. However, he denied any sexual assault and assured the officers that to the best of his knowledge Errickson was alive. Appellant attempted to implicate others as accomplices asserting that they were the ones responsible for physically harming her. Based upon information Williams supplied, the police recovered a sheet matching Williams description as one he used in connection with the abduction and also recovered a gold ring which Williams identified. On December 5, 1994, police discovered Stacy Errickson’s body buried in a shallow grave. Other evidence adduced at trial indicated that witnesses Tammy Victoria and Tammy Keenahan identified Williams as a man they had seen on the morning of November 20, 1994, at the Shellstop. They also testified that after they left the station he followed them in a car and attempted to stop them until they sought refuge at the air force base. Williams subsequently returned to the Shellstop and abducted Stacy Errikson.
On April 5, 1995, the Pulaski County prosecutor by felony information charged Williams with capital murder, kidnapping, rape, and aggravated robbery. The information also asserted that Williams had four prior felony convictions. The Pulaski County Circuit Court tried Williams on these charges beginning on January 6, 1997. Appellant was convicted on all counts. During the sentencing phase of the trial the prosecutor introduced evidence in support of three aggravating circumstances, and the appellant offered one mitigating circumstance. The jury found that all three alleged aggravating circumstances existed beyond a reasonable doubt and that Williams’s mitigating circumstance was also established. In balancing these findings the jury recommended a sentence of death, which the trial court accepted.
Errickson’s family declined to comment immediately following the execution
The execution was scheduled for 8:15 p.m., but United States District Judge Kristine Baker issued a temporary stay to allow the court to investigate the claims that the previous execution of inmate Jack Jones “appeared to be tortuous and inhuman.”
According to Arkansas Department of Correction Spokesman Solomon Graves, when the stay was handed down, Williams was already on the gurney in the death chamber. After the stay was issued, Williams asked to use the bathroom. He was taken to his cell and not brought back into the chamber until the stay was lifted.
The Court denied the emergency motion, and the stay was lifted at approximately 9:30 p.m.
Earlier Monday, both the Supreme Court of the United States and the Arkansas Supreme Court denied all requests for a stay of execution.
The April 24 executions of Jack Jones and Marcel Williams mark the nation’s first double execution in more than 16 years. They are the second and third inmates to be executed in Arkansas in less than one week.
Death row inmate Kenneth Williams is scheduled to be executed Thursday, April 27. Inmate Jason McGehee was also scheduled to be put to death Thursday, but the Arkansas Parole Board recommended clemency to the governor, thus starting a 30-day public comment period during which the execution of McGehee cannot proceed.
Jack Jones was a serial killer who was executed by the State of Arkansas for the murders of two women. According to court documents Jack Jones would murder Regina Harrison in 1983 in Florida. Jack Jones would then murder Lori Barrett in 1991. Jack Jones would then murder Mary Phillips and attempted to murder her daughter. Jack Jones would be executed by lethal injection on April 24, 2017
Jack Jones More News
The state of Arkansas has executed two prisoners on death row after the US Supreme Court rejected their last-minute appeals.
Jack Jones and Marcel Williams were both sentenced to death for rapes and murders committed in the 1990s.
Arkansas controversially scheduled eight sudden executions when it found out its supply of a drug used in lethal injections expires in late April.
It is the first double execution on the same day in the US for 17 years.
The state’s decision to plan eight executions in just 11 days was prompted by the realisation that its stockpile of midazolam – one of three drugs used together in lethal injections – would expire at the end of the month.
Human rights groups, defence lawyers, and drug companies all objected to the decision.
Both Jack Jones and Marcel Williams had filed their own legal challenges before their executions on Monday night.
Attorneys for Jones had argued he could suffer from a “torturous death” because he may be resistant to midazolam.
Lawyers for Williams had said it might be difficult to find a vein on their client for the lethal injection because of his 400lb (180kg) weight.
Williams was sentenced to death in 1997 for kidnapping, raping and murdering Stacy Errickson. He also abducted and raped two other women.
His execution was put on hold minutes before he was scheduled to die, as his lawyers raised concerns that Jones’ execution had been “inhumane”.
But a district judge allowed the execution to go ahead after a brief hearing.
Williams’ lawyers said that Jones was still moving more than five minutes after he received the injection that was supposed to make him unconscious.
But other witnesses quoted by local media disputed their version of events, arguing that Jones had showed no signs of distress.
Jones was convicted in 1996 of raping and strangling Mary Phillips and attempting to murder her 11-year-old daughter.
In his final utterance, he apologised to the girl he nearly killed, who is now an adult.
“I hope over time you could learn who I really am and I am not a monster,” witnesses quoted him as saying.
But the victim’s widower told the BBC justice had been served.
“It will never bring back Mary,” James Phillips said, “and we knew that our main concern was we promised her we’d be on the front row of justice when justice was served.
“And it took too long, but we finally got it.
“I really do feel for his [Jack Jones’] family, too, and I know it has to be hard on his side – both sides of the family.”
The two men were among eight that the state wanted to execute over the course of 11 days in April before its supplies of midazolam expired.
Four of the scheduled executions have been delayed by the courts. Another is scheduled for Thursday 27 April.
Like many US states, Arkansas has struggled to find the drugs it needs to carry out executions.
One of the legal challenges to the series of executions was lodged by McKesson Corporation, which makes the drug vecuronium bromide – part of the three-drug lethal injection cocktail.
The company claimed that the state had intentionally misled them, saying the drug would be used in health clinics for medical purposes. When McKesson found out it would be used in executions, it said it issued a refund and demanded the chemical be returned – which it never was. The state made no comment on the claims.
“We believe we have done all we can do at this time to recover our product,” the company said in a statement after the state Supreme Court overturned a brief injunction.
Human rights groups have been heavily critical of the accelerated pace of executions.
Amnesty International said Arkansas’ decision was a “shameful backslide against prevailing trends away from the death penalty”.
“Carrying out these three executions on this schedule will violate the individualized consideration that the constitution and justice require and further overstep the bounds of basic human dignity,” Cassandra Stubbs wrote.
But earlier in April, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said he was fulfilling his responsibilities.
“I have a responsibility to the voters, I have a responsibility to my oath of office, but I also have responsibility to a higher power, God and eternity, and I understand that,” he said.
“I feel comfortable in my understanding of my responsibilities both in terms of faith and scripture and in terms of as governor.”
Ledell Lee was executed by the State of Arkansas for the murder of a woman in 1993. According to court documents Ledell Lee would beat and strangled Debra Reese to death. Ledell Lee would be executed by lethal injection on April 20, 2017. Years after the execution another man’s DNA was found on the murder weapon and it looks like Arkansas executed the wrong person
Ledell Lee More News
For 22 years, Ledell Lee maintained that he had been wrongly convicted of murder.
“My dying words will always be, as it has been, ‘I am an innocent man,’” he told the BBC in an interview published on April 19, 2017 — the day before officials in Arkansas administered the lethal injection.
Four years later, lawyers affiliated with the Innocence Project and the American Civil Liberties Union say DNA testing has revealed that genetic material on the murder weapon — which was never previously tested — in fact belongs to another man. In a highly unusual development for a case in which a person has already been convicted and executed, the new genetic profile has been uploaded to a national criminal database in an attempt to identify the mystery man.
Patricia Young, Mr. Lee’s sister, has been fighting for years to prove that it was not her brother who strangled and fatally bludgeoned the 26-year-old Debra Reese in Jacksonville, Ark., a suburb of Little Rock, in 1993.
“We are glad there is new evidence in the national DNA database and remain hopeful that there will be further information uncovered in the future,” Ms. Young said in a statement last week. In response to a lawsuit filed by Ms. Young in January, Jacksonville city officials released the bloody wooden club recovered from the victim’s bedroom, a bloody white shirt wrapped around the club and several other pieces of evidence for testing.
The Innocence Project and the A.C.L.U. have pushed for additional DNA testing at previous times, including the eve of Mr. Lee’s execution. The request was denied. A federal judge rejected Mr. Lee’s request for a stay of the execution, saying that he had “simply delayed too long,” according to a complaint filed by Ms. Young.
Mr. Lee’s execution, on April 20, 2017, was the first in Arkansas in more than a decade. Some accused the state of rushing Mr. Lee and several other prisoners to their deaths that month before the expiration of its supply of a lethal injection drug.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson defended Mr. Lee’s execution. “It’s my duty to carry out the law,” he said, adding that “the fact is that the jury found him guilty based upon the information that they had.” He called the new DNA evidence that has emerged “inconclusive.”
In a statement, lawyers from the A.C.L.U. and the Innocence Project were cautious about stating what, exactly, could be extrapolated from the newly tested DNA from the shirt and the murder weapon — beyond the facts that both samples appeared to belong to the same man and that that man was not Mr. Lee
While the results obtained 29 years after the evidence was collected proved to be incomplete and partial, it is notable that there are now new DNA profiles that were not available during the trial or post-conviction proceedings in Mr. Lee’s case,” Nina Morrison, senior litigation counsel at the Innocence Project, said in the statement, which The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Uploading this newly generated profile to a national criminal database maintained by the F.B.I. has not yet provided a “hit,” she said. That means that the mystery man’s DNA does not match any of the DNA profiles that are already in the database, taken from people who were convicted or arrested on suspicion of violent crimes.
“However, the DNA profile will now remain in the database and will be automatically compared to all new profiles from convicted persons, arrestees or unsolved crimes that are entered in the future,” lawyers for the A.C.L.U., the Innocence Project and Ms. Young said in a joint statement.
According to the Innocence Project, no physical evidence was ever produced that connected Mr. Lee to Ms. Reese’s murder. In a summary of the case, the group also outlined obstacles that Mr. Lee had faced over the years, including a lawyer who was drunk and unprepared at court hearings, unreliable neighborhood eyewitnesses and conflicts of interest for key players.
Mr. Lee’s first trial resulted in a hung jury. His second murder trial began on Oct. 10, 1995, just seven days after O.J. Simpson had been acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
“Mr. Lee, a Black man charged with the vicious beating and murder of a white woman in her home, was tried under the shadow of the O.J. Simpson prosecution and trial,” Ms. Young argued in her January lawsuit. “The Simpson verdict shocked and angered many white Americans and polarized the nation along racial lines. It’s difficult to imagine that any jury could be truly objective in considering the evidence against Mr. Lee at that particular moment in time.”
Leslie Rutledge, the Arkansas attorney general, said on Thursday that she was not swayed by the new developments.
“The courts consistently rejected Ledell Lee’s frivolous claims because the evidence demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt that he murdered Debra Reese by beating her to death inside her home with a tire thumper,” she said in a statement, adding, “I am prayerful that Debra’s family has had closure following his lawful execution in 2017.”
Along with providing new DNA results, Ms. Young’s petition pushed the city of Jacksonville to compare fingerprints from the crime scene to a state and national fingerprint database for the first time. It has long been established that Mr. Lee’s fingerprints did not match any of those at the scene.
The resulting search against the national database did not provide a match, according to the Innocence Project and the A.C.L.U., but the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory has not yet searched the state database. If that search happens and a fingerprint match emerges, then the lawyers will push to compare that person’s DNA to the mystery man’s, they said.
Arkansas Death Row for men is at the Varner Supermax Unit and the Arkansas Death Row for women is at the McPherson Unit. The State of Arkansas uses lethal injection for their executions. Arkansas Department Of Corrections list their death row inmates by time spent on death row with the longest listed first.
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