LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says the state will resume executions after a 10-year gap starting next month with a double execution.
The Republican announced execution dates on Wednesday for eight death-row inmates.
Arkansas hasn't executed an inmate since 2005, largely because of court challenges to its lethal injection law and a shortage of execution drugs.
But last week, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge sent letters to the governor requesting that execution dates be set. Rutledge said the inmates' appeals had been exhausted, and the state Department of Correction says it has enough doses of its lethal-injection drugs to perform the executions.
Still, a pending lawsuit is challenging a new state law that allows the department not to disclose how it obtains its execution drugs.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
Execution dates:
• Oct. 21 — Bruce Earl Ward, convicted of the Aug. 11, 1989, murder of Rebecca Doss of Little Rock; and Don William Davis, convicted of the Oct. 12, 1990, murder of Jane Daniel of Rogers;
• Nov. 3 — Terrick Terrell Nooner, convicted of the March 16, 1993, murder of Scot Stobaugh of Little Rock; and Stacey Eugene Johnson, convicted in the April 1, 1993, murder of Carol Heath of DeQueen;
• Dec. 14 — Marcel Wayne Williams, convicted of the Nov. 20, 1994, murder of Stacy Errickson of Jacksonville; and Jack Harold Jones Jr., convicted of the June 6, 1995, murder of Mary Phillips of Searcy;
• Jan. 14, 2016 — Jason McGehee, convicted of the Aug. 19, 1996, murder of John Melbourne Jr. of Harrison; and Kenneth Williams, convicted of the Oct. 3, 1999, murder of Cecil Boren of Grady
