Amnesty calls for Arkansas executions to be halted

Arkansas has not put anyone to death for more than a decade, but plans to execute two men per day on 17, 20 and 24 April, and one man on 27 April, because its supply of the controversial execution drug midazolam will expire at the end of the month.

Don Davis and Bruce Ward are scheduled to be killed on 17 April; Ledell Lee and Stacey Johnson on 20 April; Marcel Williams and Jack Jones on 24 April, and Kenneth Williams on 27 April.

Although a federal judge has blocked the execution of Jason McGehee, he remains under threat of execution even if not on 27 April as originally scheduled.

Amnesty International called on Governor Asa Hutchinson to commute all eight death sentences.

In some of the cases legal failings meant jurors had nothing like a full picture of who they were being asked to sentence to death. In others, the prisoners have been diagnosed with serious mental disabilities, meaning their executions would be contrary to international law, the human rights group said.

Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International said: “The close scheduling of these executions is unprecedented in modern US history. Just four months after the USA recorded its lowest execution total for a quarter of a century, Arkansas is preparing to buck this positive trend in a shameful race to beat a drug expiration date.

“It is not too late for Arkansas to halt these executions. The conveyor belt of death which it is about to set in motion proves how out of step it is with the rest of the world when it comes to state-sanctioned killing, which is on the decline globally as more and more governments, and more US states, recognize it for the cruel anachronism it is.”