Arkansas Supreme Court halts death-row inmate's execution; attorney general won't appeal decision

Convicted murderer Jack Greene
Convicted murderer Jack Greene

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an emergency stay of the execution of the oldest inmate on the state's death row, which had been set for later this week. A spokesman for the state attorney general said she will not appeal the decision.

The ruling came down 5-2, and an order indicated that Justices Rhonda Wood and Shawn Womack would have denied the request. The court did not elaborate on the reasons for granting the stay in its one-page order.

Jack Greene, 62, was convicted of killing Sidney Burnett, a retired Johnson County minister, in 1991. Burnett was beaten with a can of hominy, stabbed and later shot.

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said she "will continue to fight for justice for Sidney Burnett and to give the Burnett family the closure they deserve.”

Her spokesman, Judd Deere. told an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter that she will not appeal the decision or ask for a rehearing.

“We will proceed with addressing the merits of Greene’s appeal in the state Supreme Court,” he said.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he was surprised by the court's decision, adding that "last-minute delays are always very difficult."

“This case has been reviewed by the courts on numerous occasions, and the state must now await further court action before the penalty given by an Arkansas jury is carried out,” the governor wrote in a statement.

In their petition for a stay, Greene's attorneys alleged that the inmate's compulsive behavior and ramblings of a conspiracy against him is proof that he is delusional to the point that executing him would be unconstitutional.

"Today's order means that our client, Jack Greene, will have the opportunity to make the case that he should receive an independent hearing about his competency for execution," Scott Braden, an assistant federal defender representing Greene, said in a statement.

The state attorney general's office filed court papers earlier Tuesday in response to Greene's request, saying the condemned killer was repeating tired claims in an attempt to save his life.

“As this Court previously concluded, 'butchery and torture' does not even come close to describing the 'macabre horror' that Jack Greene inflicted in Sidney Burnett,” the filing stated.

Greene's execution was set to begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Cummins prison.

A state judge, meanwhile, ordered officials to release more information about the midazolam supply after the state Supreme Court ruled last week that the Arkansas Department of Correction had to release the name of the drug manufacturer. The ruling, which took effect Tuesday, ordered the lower court to determine whether other information on the midazolam label could identify the drug's supplier and should be withheld. Arkansas law keeps the source of its execution drugs secret, but justices ruled that secrecy applies only to sellers and suppliers of the drug.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce ordered the state to release the package inserts for the drug to the attorney who sued for the information by late Tuesday but said he'll hold a hearing Wednesday over what information should be withheld from the drug's label before it's released.

Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter John Moritz and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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