Bruce Ward, a death-row inmate whose execution scheduled for next week was already stayed by a circuit judge, received a second stay Wednesday, this one from the Arkansas Supreme Court.
RELATED ARTICLE
http://www.arkansas…">Daughter asks board to spare mother's killer
EXECUTIONS: In-depth look at 4 men put to death in April + 3 others whose executions were stayed
Click here for larger versions
The state's highest court temporarily stayed Ward's execution, set for next Wednesday, pending a separate appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ward was sentenced to death in 1990 after his conviction in the 1989 rape and murder of 18-year-old Little Rock gas station clerk Rebecca Doss. Since then, Ward has appealed his case to state and federal courts.
On Sept. 4, Ward's attorney, Josh Lee, submitted a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, asking the court to review a lower-court decision.
Lee told the nation's highest court that the state Supreme Court violated Ward's rights to due process by overruling a state precedent in its denial of Ward's request for another post-conviction appeal in February. In that 4-3 ruling, dissenting justices argued that the court should have stuck to its past rulings and offered Ward the benefit of due process given the severity of his sentence.
On Oct. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court clerk's office notified Lee that court rules prevented his petition from being considered before Oct. 30 -- nine days after Ward was set for execution. The nation's high court is not required to hear Ward's appeal. Lee then asked the state Supreme Court to delay Ward's execution.
State attorneys objected, arguing that the state Supreme Court had no authority to issue a stay in Ward's case. They said Lee's legal question posed to justices in Washington, D.C., was an "unremarkable" procedural issue, one already settled locally that was "only sound and fury signifying nothing."
"If there are concerns in Washington, D.C., about the petitioner's claim, that Court can expedite its review of his petition before his execution date or it can grant him a stay, should he ask for one," a state attorney wrote. "Further delay in Arkansas is unnecessary. In sum, after decades of court challenges, it is time the sentence of the jury be carried out."
On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court granted the temporary stay. Justices Karen Baker and Rhonda Wood said they would have denied it.
Lee did not return a call Thursday for comment.
In September, Gov. Asa Hutchinson set execution dates for Ward and seven other death-row inmates.
In late June, the eight plus another death row inmate filed suit in Pulaski County Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of a new state law that makes confidential the source of the state's execution drugs.
Last Friday, Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen temporarily stayed the executions until the lawsuit is decided at trial. On Monday, the judge ordered Arkansas Department of Correction officials to disclose information about the execution drugs by Oct. 21. He set a March 1 trial date in the lawsuit.
The state attorney general's office on Tuesday appealed Griffen's ruling to the state Supreme Court. On Wednesday, they argued that Griffen exceeded his authority in his temporary stay and that he should allow attorneys to argue over a preliminary injunction "at the earliest possible time" and not in March, which will have the effect of delaying the eight executions.
They also argued that the delays would cause some of the execution drugs to expire. However, an attorney for the death-row inmates, Jeff Rosenzweig, said the earliest any of the drugs would expire would be in June and that there is plenty of time for briefing by attorneys.
Ward has another petition pending before the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. In June, Lee asked the high court to weigh in on whether Ward was entitled to an outside expert to evaluate his mental health during sentencing. That petition is set for conference with the U.S. Supreme Court today.
Metro on 10/16/2015