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#Post#: 336--------------------------------------------------
~ Ken Williams, 27Apr17, (AR) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: May 11, 2019, 3:39 pm
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Arkansas executes Kenneth Williams, 4th inmate in 8 days--
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Arkansas executed its fourth inmate in eight days, ending a
frantic schedule as the state's supply of a sedative it uses in
lethal injections expires at the end of April.
Kenneth Williams, 38, initially was sentenced to life in prison
for the 1998 killing of Dominique Hurd, a university
cheerleader. He was later convicted of capital murder after he
escaped from prison in 1999 and killed Cecil Boren.
Boren's daughter, Jodie Efird, watched Thursday night's
execution from the death chamber in Arkansas' Cummins Unit
prison. She said Williams' death may not bring closure to her
family, but it helps a little.
"Every time we drive down this road, he's not here anymore," she
said of Williams.
Williams expressed remorse in his final words.
"I was more than wrong. The crime I perpetrated against you all
was senseless," Williams said.
Williams died by lethal injection at 11:05 p.m. local time. He
was one of eight inmates who had been scheduled to be put to
death before Arkansas' supply of sedatives used in its lethal
injections expires at month's end.
The expiration is an issue because a resupply is uncertain as
Arkansas and other states struggle with suppliers that don't
want their products used in executions. The sedative, midazolam,
is a controversial replacement for anesthetics that Arkansas and
other states can no longer obtain.
Four of the eight inmates have been executed, but the courts
have postponed the other four executions for various reasons.
Because of the delays, those four inmates will not be executed
in April, a spokesman for Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson had put a temporary hold on Williams' execution
Thursday evening to allow the U.S. Supreme Court to consider
motions for stays of execution. The court denied all the
motions.
Williams' body lurched violently about three minutes into the
execution, the body jerked 15 times in quick succession, the AP
reported, before moving five more times at a slower rate.
The governor said in a news conference Friday he sees "no reason
for any investigation other than the routine review that is done
after every execution."
Wendy Kelley, director of the state Department of Correction,
briefed Hutchinson after the execution. Hutchinson said that the
movement seen by witnesses "was described as coughing without
noise" and from Kelley's account, there was "no indication of
pain."
Another witness, Little Rock TV anchor Donna Terrell, told CNN
affiliate KARK-TV that after the midazolam was injected,
Williams' chest started going up and down rapidly from 10:55 to
10:59 p.m.
After that, it appeared he stopped breathing, or it was no
longer noticeable, Terrell said.
Even though the microphone was turned off, Terrell said,
witnesses could still hear heavy breathing.
But Williams' face was expressionless, and it didn't appear as
if he were in pain, she said.
A third witness, Arkansas state Sen. Trent Garner, said on
Twitter that "the inmate did not suffer or seem in pain."
8)
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