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Thread: Kenneth Dewayne Williams - Arkansas Execution - April 27, 2017

  1. #21
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Federal appeals court grants AG's motion to lift stays of execution

    LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals granted late Monday afternoon the Arkansas Attorney General's motion to vacate the stays of execution imposed last week by a district judge.

    The 8th Circuit Court cited the prisoners' long delay in pursuing their federal claims, saying "the prisoners voluntarily elected to forego their federal claim in April 2015, and chose instead to challenge the method of execution exclusively in state court under the Arkansas Constitution."

    The court says that created a presumption against granting a stay of the executions.

    The court said Judge Baker's conclusion about the midazolam (the sedative used in lethal injections) was not adequately supported by the court's factual findings.

    The court disagreed that the execution method was sure or very likely to cause needless suffering.

    Monday's 8th Circuit ruling does not affect the Arkansas Supreme Court's stay issued for death row inmates Don Davis and Bruce Ward, who were scheduled to die Monday, April 17. This order paves the way for only the remaining 5 executions to proceed.

    http://katv.com/news/local/8th-circu...s-of-execution

    The Eighth Circuit's decision can be read here.

  2. #22
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    An Arkansas Family Prepares to Witness the Execution of their Father’s Murderer

    The Boren family has waited a long time for their patriarch's murderer to be put to death by the state of Arkansas.

    Days before the scheduled execution, they prepared to witness the execution of Kenneth Williams.

    Genie Boren's husband Cecil was murdered in the yard of his Varner home 18 years ago.

    A jury sentenced Williams, who killed Cecil after escaping from prison and a separate life sentence for murder, to die soon after. But Genie Boren and her family have long waited for the state of Arkansas's ultimate justice.

    Williams is scheduled to die Thursday at 7 p.m. CT.

    "It's never been this close," said Cecil's daughter. "We've never gotten within two weeks ever before, but you just wonder: 'Is this the time it happens?'"

    Williams is the last man to die in an aggressive schedule set by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Arkansas initially planned to kill eight men within 10 days of each other. So far one man has been executed and courts stopped four inmates from meeting the state's executioner.

    The Borens are focused on fulfilling the death sentence handed down by that jury 18 years ago, but activists say that wait is cruel for both the inmates and the victims' families.

    "We have failed victims' families by telling them that this is what justice is going to look like for you and you need to wait until this comes," said Furonda Brasfield, director of the Arkansas Coalition to End the Death Penalty.

    Nevertheless, Cecil's family are just a few days short of driving to the Cummins Unit, where the Arkansas death house is held, to witness the execution of the man who took their patriarch away. But there's still a chance the execution could be stopped by a last minute court order.

    "I don't think anybody is going to be executed," Genie said, days before condemned inmate Ledell Lee was put to death by the state of Arkansas. "So we'll be around here next time it goes."

    http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/let...rderer-n749961
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  3. #23
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    Arkansas court denies stays of execution for Kenneth Williams

    LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The final inmate scheduled to die by lethal injection in Arkansas this month has been denied all requests for stays of execution by the state's highest court.

    According to Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, death row inmate Kenneth Williams has no other motions or requests pending before the Arkansas State Supreme Court as of Wednesday.

    In 1999, Williams was sentenced to life in prison for killing UAPB cheerleader Dominique Hurd and Jerrell Jenkins. He escaped prison a few weeks later, and while running, killed Cecil Boren and Michael Greenwood. He received the death sentence for Boren's murder.

    Williams is scheduled to be executed Thursday. If the execution is carried out, he will be the state's fourth death row inmate to be put to death in one week. Ledell Lee was executed April 20, and both Jack Jones and Marcel Williams were executed April 24.

    http://katv.com/news/local/arkansas-...nneth-williams

    Williams is probably a goner now. If the Arkansas Supreme Court won't buy his claims, it seems highly unlikely SCOTUS will intervene.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  4. #24
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    Victim’s family buys plane tickets for death row inmate’s daughter

    SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Family members of a man whose death was caused by Arkansas condemned killer Kenneth Williams said they’ve forgiven him — and bought plane tickets so the condemned man’s daughter and granddaughter could visit before his scheduled execution Thursday.

    Michael Greenwood was killed in a 1999 traffic wreck with Williams, who had escaped from prison, where he was serving a life sentence for killing a cheerleader. Williams faces execution Thursday for killing another man, Cecil Boren, while on the run.

    Michael Greenwood’s daughter, Kayla Greenwood, told the Springfield News-Leader that she learned a few days ago that Williams has a 21-year-old daughter, Jasmine, whom he hasn’t seen for 17 years and a 3-year-old granddaughter he’s never met.

    Greenwood said her mother bought plane tickets for Williams’ daughter and granddaughter to fly from Washington state to Arkansas so they could see Williams on Wednesday, a day before his execution.

    “I told him we forgive him and where I stood on it,” said Greenwood, who sent a message to Williams through his attorney. “When he found out that we are bringing his daughter and granddaughter to see him and that my mom and dad bought the tickets, he was crying to the attorney.”

    Members of Greenwood’s family had urged clemency for Williams. But family members of Boren, whose killing led to Williams’ death sentence, told the Arkansas Parole Board that the execution should go forward.

    https://www.google.com/amp/fox8.com/...-daughter/amp/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  5. #25
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    EU Ambassador asks Ark. to halt execution, says inmate is 'intellectually disabled'

    The European Union’s ambassador to the U.S. has forwarded a letter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson from the 28-member state alliance asking him to halt the execution of Kenneth Williams on Thursday due to doctors’ finding that the death-row inmate is “intellectually disabled.”

    The letter from David O’ Sullivan comes as the State Department of Corrections (ADC) prepares to execute Williams at 7 p.m. Thursday (April 27), the last of eight scheduled executions first announced by Gov. Hutchinson earlier this year that have brought international attention to the state.

    Williams’ death sentence follows the executions of Ledell Lee, Jack Jones and Marcel Williams over the past week. O’Sullivan’s letter to the governor points to recent evidence submitted to courts from three doctors that Williams should not be executed because of his diminished intellectual capacity.

    “I believe this evidence should be heard and that Mr. Williams should not be executed,” O’ Sullivan noted.

    A longtime Irish civil servant, Ambassador O’Sullivan is the EU’s top diplomat to the U.S. He oversees the EU’s bilateral relationship with the U.S. and the direction and work of the union’s political, economic and commercial affairs. In his letter to Hutchinson, O’Sullivan said the EU is opposed to the use of capital punishment under all circumstances and is seeking universal abolition of the death penalty, starting with a global moratorium as a first step.

    “We believe that the elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights on a global scale,” O’Sullivan said. “Furthermore, we are convinced that applying the death penalty will have no deterrent effect.”

    And while O’Sullivan expresses his sympathies to the surviving families and victims of the crimes committed by Arkansas’ death-row inmates, he said the EU does not believe their loss will be mitigated by Williams’ death.

    “This unprecedented pace of carrying out those sentences has been justified by the urge to use some of the execution drugs before their expiry dates. We also note with concern that other drugs used for executions were reportedly acquired by circumventing the policies of the company who sold them. Proceeding with Mr. Williams’ execution would therefore be a very concerning precedent,” O’Sullivan tells Hutchinson.

    The EU’s letter is unusual in that it is the first formal rebuke of the state’s execution protocol by an influential European trade group, which as a whole represents the world’s largest economy with $16.47 trillion in gross domestic production in 2016. The letter also comes at the last hour of the state’s execution schedule that first began on April 17, already ending with the stays of death sentences of Dan Davis, Bruce Ward and Stacey Johnson.

    In recent interviews with reporters, Hutchinson and Arkansas Economic Development Chief Mike Preston have argued that states with the death penalty have not suffered from application of the death penalty.

    “I expect absolutely no economic consequence because when you look at South Carolina, Florida and Texas, those economies have not suffered consequences either from Europe or otherwise, or international scrutiny because of the actions they’ve taken,” Hutchinson told reporters at the State Capitol on April 4.

    In a follow-up pen-and-paper gathering with reporters on April 14, Hutchinson reiterated the state was not rushing to execute the eight death-row inmates because of the expiration of the sedative midazolam on April 30. Hutchinson told reporters it was his duty to set a date for the state’s already approved executions, and that those opposed to the death penalty in Europe would still be critical of his decision to execute eight Arkansas inmates even if he spread out the death sentences over several weeks or months.

    “They’ve had 343 (executions) in Texas and Europe hasn’t stopped doing business in Texas. In South Carolina, they’ve had scores of executions and BMW from Germany is located there, and Alabama has also had executions while we have had none …, and Mercedes is located there. So, Europe is not going to stop doing business with us,” he said.

    Besides its stated opposition to the death penalty, the EU has also restricted the export of anesthetics used in lethal injections since 2014. That has led U.S. states, including Arkansas, to make deals with domestic pharmaceutical companies for a fresh supply of execution drugs.

    On April 18, days ahead of the deaths of Jones and Marcel Williams, U.S. drugmaker McKesson filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court to halt the death sentences, claiming ADC Director Wendy Kelley illegally obtained a supply of vecuronium bromide to use in the state’s execution regimen.

    As part of the state’s three-drug cocktail, midazolam is first injected by the executioner to render the prisoner unconscious. That is followed by vecuronium bromide to paralyze the inmate, and a final injection of potassium chloride that stops the inmate’s heart and causes death.

    An Oklahoma death penalty commission on Wednesday recommended the extension of a one-year moratorium on that state’s three-drug execution protocol, the same one used by Arkansas corrections officials. The 11-member Oklahoma task force is advocating corrections officials there switch to a one-drug execution protocol, something not yet publicly discussed in Arkansas.

    As of late Wednesday, all stays for Kenneth Williams had been denied by the Arkansas Supreme Court. Williams asked the court to enter evidence concerning his mental capabilities. The death-row inmate still has pending motions in federal court to halt his execution.

    Williams was convicted for the October 1999 murder of Cecil Boren. At the time, Williams was already serving a life sentence without parole for the kidnapping and killing of University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff cheerleader Dominique Hurd when he escaped from prison, murdered Boren, and stole his truck. While driving that truck, he was involved in an accident in Missouri that killed Michael Greenwood of Springfield, Mo. He later confessed in a newspaper letter to a Pine Bluff newspaper editor of killing local resident Jerrell Jenkins.

    http://katv.com/news/local/eu-ambass...ually-disabled
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #26
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    Death Row Inmate files Two Appeals Before Scheduled Execution

    Two appeals have been filed Thursday afternoon with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Arkansas Death Row Inmate Kenneth Williams, who is scheduled to die tonight by lethal injection.

    One of the filings requests a Stay of Execution. The other asks for a Writ of Certiorari.

    "Mr. Williams respectfully requests from this Court a stay of execution pending consideration of his petition for a writ of certiorari. That petition seeks review in this Court regarding the refusal of the State of Arkansas to provide Mr.

    Williams a forum to litigate his claim that he is intellectually disabled, and thus categorically ineligible to be put to death," states the request for a stay. "Kenneth Williams is innocent of the death penalty; he is intellectually disabled and thus categorically ineligible to be put to death. He comes before this Court with three petitions, not because a lower tribunal disagreed that he is innocent of death, but because no court has agreed to hear the merits of his claim," adds the writ.

    Earlier Thursday, Williams' attorney filed with the Arkansas Supreme Court an emergency motion for a stay of execution based on a new cruelty claim he filed this morning in the Circuit Court of Pulaski County. On Thursday afternoon, the office of Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed an 18-page response asking the court to deny Williams' petition.

    Williams has cases pending at circuit, state, and 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, too. As of mid-afternoon Thursday, there were eight total filings awaiting responses.

    http://www.nwahomepage.com/news/deat...tion/700645829
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  7. #27
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Kenneth Williams's execution will likely be decided by SCOTUS as his lawyers file motions claiming he is mentally disabled.

    https://twitter.com/THV11/status/857695619879776259

  8. #28
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    Under Atkins v. Virginia, states cannot execute mentally handicapped individuals. SCOTUS ruled this a violation of the 8th Amendment.

  9. #29
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    The Latest on Arkansas' effort to execute a fourth inmate before its supply of a lethal injection drug expires on Sunday (all times local):

    3:20 p.m.

    The Arkansas Supreme Court has rejected two requests to stop the scheduled execution of Kenneth Williams.

    The court denied requests for execution stays for Williams, who is set to be put to death at 7 p.m. Thursday.

    Williams still has several other legal challenges pending in multiple courts. His attorneys have said he's intellectually disabled and that he has medical conditions that could make his execution painful.

    Williams' attorneys are also questioning whether two inmates put to death earlier this week suffered during their executions.

    If executed, Williams would be the fourth inmate put to death in Arkansas over the past eight days.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #30
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    Governor Asa Hutchinson has responded to the family of Kenneth Williams' victim asking for the execution of Kenneth Wiliams to be stopped. He said "despite [the jury's] showing of mercy," Williams still escaped from prison and killed Cecil Boren.
    Read more about his victims here: on.kthv.com/2qjGq3x


    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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