Arkansas execution rules make it impossible to document botches

[moriah]

Last edited Wed Apr 26, 2017, 02:21 PM - Edit history (1)

http://m.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/apr/26/execution-rules-block-out-parts-2017042/

Within an hour of Jones' death, called at 7:20, Williams' attorneys had filed an emergency motion to call off the second execution over concerns that it took 45 minutes to place an IV line in Jones' veins and that he was "gulping for air" as he died.

The last-minute plea was filed as Williams was already strapped to the gurney. A federal judge reviewed the appeal and rejected it about two hours later.

Media witnesses said they saw Jones moving his lips after the initial injection, but they said it was unclear whether Jones was talking, gasping or simply moving. The execution occurred very close to its scheduled 7 p.m. start, and prison officials had given no indication there had been a problem placing the IV line.

Attempts to clarify the discrepant reports were fruitless. Neither the media witnesses nor the attorneys had been allowed to witness officials place the IVs, per prison department policy, which a prison spokesman said also led officials to turn off an audio connection between the execution chamber and witness room shortly after Jones uttered his final statement.

Noteworthy other snippets from this article include that the State isn't required to document times of consciousness checks, or to note when they start the paralytic and potassium chloride.

If they start the paralytic before loss of consciousness, the condemned can't move or speak to complain about the agony of suffocation, and their chest will stop moving the moment it starts to work without them necessarily being dead -- they're still alive, just suffocating to death. Given that even 500mg of IV midazolam isn't a reliable way to stop consciousness, this is a crucial problem with the method Arkansas is using in their attempt to rush through eight executions before the end of the month. Their midazolam supply is set to expire then.

Challenges by the manufacturer of the paralytic drug may place the license for the medical director for the Arkansas Department of Corrections in jeopardy. Executions are not a "legitimate medical purpose" to prescribe a drug according to the Arkansas Medical Board. McKesson, the manufacturer of the paralytic vecuronium bromide, revealed that the ADC used their medical director's license to purchase the paralytic and concealed that the purpose was for execution in their legal challenges to the scheduled executions.

So far, of the eight condemned inmates Arkansas planned to execute this month, three have been put to death -- Ledell Lee, Jack Jones, and Marcel Williams. Ledell Lee had maintained his innocence from the beginning, and while Stacey Johnson was allowed to pursue a claim of actual innocence, Lee's request for DNA testing of hairs found at the scene was denied.

The last of the eight, Kenneth Williams, is scheduled to be executed tomorrow night. He was in six different foster homes after being born to addicted parents, and first entered the juvenile justice system at nine. Despite becoming an ordained minister in prison and, as part of his conversion, admitting that he'd killed a man whose murder had remained unsolved, he was denied a clemency recommendation by the parole board (who only recommended clemency for one of the eight, Jason McGehee, based on his good behavior).

McGehee and Johnson, along with Bruce Ward and Don Davis, will not be executed this month. Even though McGehee has not officially been granted clemency, the 30-day comment period will make his execution possible only after the midazolam has expired.

While the eight death row inmates originally chosen for this blitzkrieg of executions was evenly mixed racially, if Arkansas kills Kenneth Williams, it will mean 3 out of the 4 actually executed were black -- and the one white man, Jack Jones, had expressed misgivings about wanting to continue to live on death row, stating he didn't want to spend another day in what he called a "rat hole" and refusing to attend his clemency hearing.