Arkansas executed two murderers Monday night. This is the first double execution in one day in Arkansas since 1999. The last state to carry out a double execution was Texas in 2000.
Marcel Williams was pronounced dead at 10:33 p.m. Central Time, 17 minutes after the procedure began at the Cummins Unit in southeastern Arkansas. Jack Jones had been put to death more than three hours earlier.
Williams’ execution had been delayed for two hours after a federal judge in Little Rock issued an emergency stay over concerns about how Jones’ execution was carried out. Williams’ attorneys claimed Jones gasped for air, an account the state’s attorney general denied, but the judge lifted her stay about an hour later.
Williams was sent to death row for the 1994 rape and killing of 22-year-old Stacy Errickson, whom he kidnapped from a gas station in central Arkansas.
Authorities said Williams abducted and raped two other women in the days before he was arrested in Errickson’s death. Williams admitted responsibility to the state Parole Board last month.
Jones was sent to death row for the 1995 rape and killing of Mary Phillips. He was also convicted of attempting to kill Phillips’ 11-year-old daughter and was convicted in another rape and killing in Florida.
The last state to put more than one inmate to death on the same day was Texas, which executed two killers in August 2000.
Arkansas’ last double execution occurred in 1999.
Arkansas executes two inmates in one night, first state to do so since 2000 https://t.co/WVqw1fniZA pic.twitter.com/ORer0Lkfg5
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 25, 2017
BREAKING: Arkansas completes first US double execution since 2000
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 25, 2017
Photo: Source