Arkansas Executes Jack Jones As Part Of First U.S. Double Execution In 17 Years
Source: Huffington Post
04/24/2017 08:33 pm ET
The executions are part of the states unprecedented plan to kill 8 men in 11 days.
By Kim Bellware
Arkansas has executed the first of two men scheduled to die in the first U.S. double execution since 2000.
Jack Jones Jr., 52, was the first prisoner put to death Monday night. Jones was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 7:20 p.m. CDT at the Arkansas Department of Corrections Cummins Unit outside of Little Rock.
Lawyers for Jones petitioned all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court but were ultimately denied both a stay of execution and a petition to have the high court hear his case. His lawyers argued that Jones previous attorneys failed to present mitigating evidence that could have spared him a death sentence and said evidence of mental health issues Jones suffered should have been presented at trial.
Jones had been on death row for 22 years after he was convicted of the 1995 rape and murder of 34-year-old bookkeeper Mary Phillips in Bald Knob, Arkansas.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/arkansas-double-execution_us_58fe8912e4b06b9cb919820e?section=us_politics
George II
(67,782 posts)Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)A federal judge temporarily blocked Arkansas from executing a second inmate Monday night after attorneys questioned whether the first execution had gone properly.
Jack Jones received a lethal injection earlier Monday evening that lasted 14 minutes. The state was set to execute Marcel Williams about an hour later after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Williams' last appeals, but a federal judge temporarily halted the proceedings due to an emergency filing from Williams' attorneys.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker halted Williams' execution until she issues another order. His death warrant expires at midnight.
In the emergency filing, Williams' attorneys wrote that officials spent 45 minutes trying to place an IV line in Jones' neck before placing it elsewhere. It argued that Williams, who weighs 400 pounds, could face a "torturous" death because of his weight.
</snip>
forgotmylogin
(7,533 posts)People, just stay away from there. It's the dark scary basement of the US.