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Thread: Bruce Earl Ward - Arkansas Death Row

  1. #51
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Arkansas court to hear spared death row inmates' cases

    The Associated Press

    Arkansas' highest court has agreed to hold oral arguments in cases involving two death row inmates who were spared from being executed last year.

    The state Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would hear the arguments in the appeals involving convicted killers Bruce Ward and Jack Greene on Sept. 6. Ward was one of eight inmates the state planned to execute in April 2017 before its supply of a lethal injection drug expired. The state ultimately executed four inmates after the other four inmates were granted stays by court rulings.

    Greene was scheduled to be put to death in November, but the state Supreme Court issued a stay preventing him from being executed.

    http://www.bnd.com/entertainment/article213861574.html
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  2. #52
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Arkansas court hears 2 death row inmates’ appeals

    By ANDREW DeMILLO
    The Associated Press

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Attorneys for two death row inmates who were spared from execution last year are asking Arkansas' highest court to strike down a law that gives the state's prison director authority to determine whether they're mentally competent to be put to death.

    The state Supreme Court heard appeals Thursday from convicted murderers Bruce Ward and Jack Greene, who argue the law violates their constitutional rights. Both inmates were granted stays last year so the court could hear their case.

    Ward was one of eight inmates Arkansas planned to execute in April 2017. Ward and three other inmates were granted stays. Greene was scheduled to be put to death in November, but was that was also halted.

    Arkansas has no executions scheduled, and lacks two of the three drugs needed for lethal injection.

    https://www.idahostatesman.com/enter...217930125.html

  3. #53
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Ward's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Arkansas
    Case Numbers: (CR-98-657)
    Decision Date: March 1, 2018

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/17-9159.html

  4. #54
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Split Supreme Court allows condemned inmates' competency challenges to go forward

    The Arkansas Supreme Court in 4-3 decisions today reversed a lower court and said Death Row inmates Bruce Ward and Jack Greene could challenge the state's process for determining whether they are competent to be executed.

    Dermination of competency is made by the Correction Department director, now Wendy Kelley. A lower court had upheld that procedure in the case of both inmates. The Supreme Court agreed in separate opinions that this denied them due process of law.

    Ward was sentenced to die in Pulaski County in 1990 for the slaying of Rebecca Doss. Greene was convicted in 1992 of the killing of Sidney Burnett. Ward's conviction has been upheld in three separate appeals. He was scheduled to be killed by the state April 17, but was granted an emergency stay on the competency issue. Greene's conviction has been affirmed twice. He was scheduled to be killed in November 2017 but the Supreme Court granted a stay over wishes of the state to proceed.

    In a decision written by Chief Justice Dan Kemp in Ward's case, the court majority today said, given recent federal court rulings, that the state law leaving decisions to the director is unconstitutional.


    This statutory provision authorizes the Director to initiate a determination of competency “[w]hen the Director . . . is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that [the death-row inmate] is not competent,” and at that time, “the Director . . . shall notify the Deputy Director of the Division of Aging . . . of . . . [DHS].” Simply put, section 16-90-506(d)(1)(A) is devoid of any procedure by which a death-row inmate has an opportunity to make an initial “substantial threshold showing of insanity . . . to trigger the hearing process” pursuant to Ford, 477 U.S. at 426. Nor does the language of section 16-90-506(d)(1)(A) provide for an evidentiary hearing that comports with the fundamental principles of due process, as articulated in Ford and Panetti. Therefore, we hold that section 16-90-501(d)(1) is unconstitutional on its face and violates the due-process guarantees of the United States and Arkansas Constitutions.

    The decision sends the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.

    Justice Jo Hart concurred separately from Justices Kemp, Robin Wynne and Courtney Goodson. She rejected all the state's arguments but said she wanted to emphasize it was unnecessary to address an argument Ward made about separation of powers, which the majority said it did not need to consider to reverse.

    Justice Rhonda Wood, Karen Baker and Shawn Womack dissented. Justice Baker wrote that the majority opinion, which overrode an earlier precedent, was a violation of the court's practice of stare decisis, or sticking with previous decisions.


    Here's the court decision.

    Kemp also wrote for the court in the Greene case and cited Ward's case in holding a due process violation. The votes split the same way.

    In the Greene case, the court did take up one other argument. It rejected his claim that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to execute him after 25 years in solitary confinement.


    As Greene acknowledges, neither the United States Supreme Court nor this court has ruled that such a constitutional protection exists. While at least one United States Supreme Court Justice has opined that there is merit to Greene’s proposition, this court declines to adopt a rule proscribing execution that turns upon the amount of time one has spent in solitary confinement. Inmates can end up in solitary confinement for a number of reasons, some probably more justified than others. Furthermore, prolonged execution processes will often be attributable to actions by both the state and the inmate, as this court has previously observed. Where the remedy sought is a declaration that one’s execution would violate the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, it seems that the better approach is to simply treat any circumstances of prolonged solitary confinement as a consideration relevant to, but not dispositive of, a Ford-based claim of incompetency.


    Justice Rhonda Wood wrote the dissent, noting that Greene had been given an opportunity to make a case to Kelley on his competency but "clearly failed to make a threshold showing of insanity."

    Wood also cited stare decisis, or avoiding a reversal of precedent.

    The court, however, HAS reversed precedent, most famously in a recent interpretation of sovereign immunity. Wood joined the majority in that opinion but Baker did not.

    https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlo...-to-go-forward
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  5. #55
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    Arkansas AG asks court to reconsider competency law ruling for executions

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Arkansas' attorney general is asking the state's highest court to reconsider its decisions striking down a law that gave the state's prison director authority to determine whether an inmate is mentally competent to be executed.

    Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Monday petitioned for a rehearing and asked the state Supreme Court to vacate its rulings in favor of two death row inmates who were spared from execution last year. Justices earlier this month ruled that the competency law violated due process rights guaranteed in the Arkansas and U.S. Constitutions.

    Convicted murderers Bruce Ward and Jack Greene were granted stays last year so the court could hear their case. Rutledge on Monday argued that the competency law can be applied in a way that is constitutional.

    https://katv.com/news/local/arkansas...for-executions
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  6. #56
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Arkansas AG seeks to move execution cases to federal court

    Associated Press

    Arkansas' attorney general is seeking to move lawsuits challenging a measure giving the prison director authority to determine an inmate's competency to be executed to federal court.

    Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Thursday filed notice to move the lawsuits by death row inmates Bruce Ward and Jack Greene from Jefferson County Circuit Court. The state Supreme Court in November struck down an earlier version of the mental competency law.

    Legislators this year approved a reworked version of the law, and the inmates are seeking to have it overturned.

    Rutledge's filing says federal courts have jurisdiction since the inmates argue the new law violates the U.S. Constitution.

    Arkansas has no executions scheduled and lacks the drugs needed for its lethal injection process.

    https://katv.com/news/local/arkansas...-federal-court
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  7. #57
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    State officials ‘working closely’ on execution dates

    While no time estimate was provided on when executions may continue in Arkansas, the office of Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said they are working with Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) to “ensure justice.”

    U.S. District Court Judge Kristine Baker with the Eastern District of Arkansas ruled June 1 that Arkansas could continue with a three-drug protocol – midazolam, vercuronium bromide, and potassium chloride – to administer a death sentence by lethal injection. The ruling allows state officials to set, and reset in some cases, execution dates for death row inmates.

    “As the Attorney General, I enforce the laws in the State and bring justice for families who have long been devastated at the hands of these murderers. Today’s final judgment reaffirms the constitutionality of Arkansas’s execution protocol.” Rutledge said following the June 1 ruling.

    The AG’s office told Talk Business & Politics that death row inmates Don Davis, Jack Greene, Stacey Johnson, Timothy Kemp and Bruce Ward “have exhausted the legal process and are eligible for execution.” Ward, 63, was sentenced Oct. 18, 1990. Davis, 57, was sentenced March 6, 1992. Greene, 65, was sentenced July 1, 1999. Johnson, 50, was sentenced Sept. 23, 1994. Kemp, 59, was sentenced Dec. 2, 1994.

    The AG’s office would not provide details on execution date discussions or provide a time frame for when executions might begin.

    “The Attorney General is working closely with the Governor and the Arkansas Department of Correction to ensure justice for the victims and their families,” noted a statement from AG Communications Director Amanda Priest.

    Greene was set to be executed in November 2017, but received a last minute reprieve from the Arkansas Supreme Court based on a need to assess his mental competency. Greene was convicted for the 1991 murder of 69-year old Sidney Burnett, a preacher living in Knoxville in Johnson County.

    Gov. Hutchinson in 2017 set execution dates two at a time over an 11-day period starting April 17 and ending April 27. However, stays of executions were granted for Davis, Ward, and Johnson. Eventually executed that year were Ledelle Lee (April 20), Marcel Williams and Jack Jones (April 24) and Kenneth Williams (April 27).

    According to the ADC, there are 30 people on death row. Of those, 15 are white, 14 are black and one is Hispanic.

    https://talkbusiness.net/2020/06/sta...ecution-dates/
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  8. #58
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    The Eighth Circuit has denied a petition sought by Arkansas inmates Jason McGehee, Stacy Johnson, Bruce Ward, Terrick Nooner and Don Davis, subpoenaing the Nebraska Department of Corrections for information on their death penalty protocol in order to prove that Arkansas’s death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...020-08-06.html
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  9. #59
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    The Eighth Circuit has remanded the Eighth Amendment lawsuit against the Nebraska Department of Corrections brought by Arkansas inmates Jason McGehee, Stacey Johnson, Bruce Ward, Terrick Nooner and Don Davis to the district court to be dismissed.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...021-02-10.html
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    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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