March 15, 2010
Attorney General Says Execution Likely To Proceed
LITTLE ROCK — Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Friday he expects a judge’s ruling staying the execution of condemned killer Jack Harold Jones Jr. to be overturned and the execution to take place next week as previously scheduled.
McDaniel’s office has asked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis to give expedited consideration to its appeal of U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes’ ruling Thursday that stayed Jones’ execution. By 5 p.m. Friday the 8th Circuit had not issued a ruling.
“We’ve notified the United States Supreme Court to be expecting that to come to them,” McDaniel told reporters Friday. “We are stationed at the office around the clock through the weekend, and we are prepared to do what we have to do leading up to the execution on Tuesday, which we still are preparing for and expect to occur.”
Jones has filed a lawsuit alleging the state’s Methods of Executions Act, approved last year, is unconstitutional because it hinders his ability to pursue a legal claim by denying him access to the actual lethal injection protocol that will be used to execute him.
Holmes said in his ruling Thursday that “the public interest would be served” if the court considers Jones’ claims.
McDaniel said of the ruling, “I was disappointed, because there’s nothing new in the motion (for the stay). If we’re simply going to grant a stay every time someone files something that they’d like to have heard, then that could go on forever.”
Jones also asked the Arkansas Supreme Court for a stay. The state’s highest court said Friday the issue was moot because of the stay in federal court.
If the stay remains in place, at some point Gov. Mike Beebe will need to instruct the Department of Correction to stop its preparations. Spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor is monitoring the situation closely.
“It would likely happen about the end of business on Monday” if the stay is not lifted by then, DeCample said.
Jones was sentenced to die for raping and killing Bald Knob bookkeeper Mary Phillips and assaulting her daughter in 1995.
http://swtimes.com/articles/2010/03/...s031310_07.txt
Bookmarks