Washington, US Supreme Court. Despite a recent court ruling by the highest court in the United States, the State of Arkansas will press on in its desires to mass kill inmates on death row in its state prison system.
Arkansas prison officials have vowed to carry out a double execution later this week after the US Supreme Court spared an inmate just minutes before his death warrant was set to expire.
The Supreme court’s decision was the second time Don Davis had been granted a reprieve shortly before execution.The Arkansas man came within hours of death in 2010.
Mr. Davis had already been served a last meal of fried chicken, rolls, beans, mashed potatoes and strawberry cake, and witnesses were being moved towards the execution chamber when the US Supreme Court ruling came just minutes before Davis’s death warrant expired at midnight.
The Governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson had set an aggressive schedule of as many as eight executions by the end of April, when the state’s supply of a key lethal injection drug expires.Davis and Bruce Ward were supposed to be the first two of those on Monday but Ward received a stay of execution and the state did not appeal against the decision.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said Arkansas would press ahead with other planned executions, “There are five scheduled executions remaining with nothing preventing them from occurring, but I will continue to respond to any and all legal challenges brought by the prisoners,” Rutledge said.
Death penalty critics challenge the State’s version of reality and argue that not only is the US death penalty inhumane, but is in violation of international law, UN statutes, EU laws and International Criminal Court agreements worldwide.