Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arkansas .
Since 1820, a total of 505 individuals have been executed. According to the Arkansas Department of Correction, as of September, 10 2024, a total of 26 men were under a sentence of death in the state.
All but four executions carried out before 1913 were by hanging. Four guerillas were shot on July 29, 1864.
On July 25, 1902, seven men were hanged, the most executions in one day in the state.
Almost all executions were for crimes that involved murder. A number of people were also executed for rape and there was one execution for espionage, 17-year-old alleged Confederate spy David O. Dodd, hanged by Union soldiers on January 8, 1864.
In 1913, the method used was changed to the electric chair. The electric chair was constructed from the wood that had previously made up the state gallows. This electric chair would be used for all electrocutions up until 1964. Four more people were hanged in the state — one in 1913, two in 1914 and one in 1930.
The last execution in the state before Furman v. Georgia [1] was that of Charles Fields on January 24, 1964 for rape. New capital punishment laws were passed in Arkansas and came into force on March 23, 1973. The first execution would not come until June 18, 1990 when John Edward Swindler was electrocuted. His was the first and so far only execution using an electric chair constructed by the state in the 1970s.
According to Michael L. Radelet of the University of Colorado there have been two instances of executions that did not go according to plan in Arkansas since Furman. On January 24, 1992 the execution of Ricky Ray Rector was delayed by fifty minutes after the medical staff were unable to find a suitable vein in his arm. The curtain over the witness area was not drawn, and witnesses heard Rector moan loudly eight times. State officials attributed the difficulties to his size and use of antipsychotic medication. The execution of Christina Marie Riggs faced similar delays on May 2, 2000, when staff were unable to locate a vein in her elbow. They eventually found one in her wrist.
There have been at least three death penalty volunteers in Arkansas: Ronald Gene Simmons, Christina Marie Riggs, and Clay King Smith.
In April 2017, the state planned to execute eight death row inmates before the stocks of the sedative midazolam expired at the end of April, but ultimately only four were put to death that month. A federal judge initially issued an injunction preventing the executions, but the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ruling and the United States Supreme Court rejected a claim that the accelerated execution schedule was "cruel and unusual punishment." [2] On April 20, at about 11:30 PM CST, they were allowed to proceed. At 11:56 PM CST, four minutes prior to the expiration of his execution warrant, Ledell Lee was executed, making him the first inmate in Arkansas to be executed since 2005. [3] On April 24, Jack Harold Jones and Marcel Williams were executed, the first double execution in the United States in 17 years. [4] The last of the four inmates put to death in April 2017 was serial killer Kenneth Williams, who was found guilty of murdering a farmer during his prison escape and sentenced to death; Williams was also convicted of two more murders but was given two life sentences for these other killings. Williams, whose death sentence was carried out on 27 April 2017, remains the last person executed in Arkansas as of 2024. [5]
When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous.
In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued, even if a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial). [6]
The Governor of Arkansas has the power of clemency with respect to death sentences. [7] The governor receives for that purpose a non-binding report from the Arkansas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
The method of execution is lethal injection. Anyone sentenced to death before July 4, 1983 can choose between lethal injection and electrocution, [8] however, currently there aren't any death row inmates that were sentenced before the aforementioned date. [9] If lethal injection is ever ruled unconstitutional, electrocution shall be used to replace it. [10]
Executions in Arkansas are currently performed at the Cummins Unit.
The following are capital crimes in Arkansas:
Male death row inmates are located at the Arkansas Department of Correction Varner Unit's Supermax, while the executions are performed at the Cummins Unit, adjacent to Varner. [12] The female death row is located at the McPherson Unit. In 1999 the female death row was newly inaugurated. [13]
In 1974, male death row inmates previously at the Tucker Unit, were moved to the Cummins Unit. [14] In 1986, male death row inmates were moved to the Maximum Security Unit. [14] On Friday August 22, 2003, all 39 Arkansas death row inmates, all of them male, were moved to the Supermax at the Varner Unit. [15]
The electric chair is a specialized device used for capital punishment through electrocution. The condemned is strapped to a custom wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to the head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New York dentist, conceived this execution method in 1881. It was developed over the next decade as a more humane alternative to conventional executions, particularly hanging. First used in 1890, the electric chair became symbolic of this execution method.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Ohio, although all executions have been suspended indefinitely by Governor Mike DeWine until a replacement for lethal injection is chosen by the Ohio General Assembly. The last execution in the state was in July 2018, when Robert J. Van Hook was executed via lethal injection for murder.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Utah.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Nebraska. In 2015, the state legislature voted to repeal the death penalty, overriding governor Pete Ricketts' veto. However, a petition drive secured enough signatures to suspend the repeal until a public vote. In the November 2016 general election, voters rejected the repeal measure, preserving capital punishment in the state. Nebraska currently has 11 inmates on death row.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18.
Capital punishment was abolished in Virginia on March 24, 2021, when Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill into law. The law took effect on July 1, 2021. Virginia is the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty, and the first southern state in United States history to do so.
The Cummins Unit is an Arkansas Department of Corrections prison in unincorporated Lincoln County, Arkansas, United States, in the Arkansas Delta region. It is located along U.S. Route 65, near Grady, Gould, and Varner, 28 miles (45 km) south of Pine Bluff, and 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Little Rock.
The Riverbend Maximum Security Institution (RMSI) is a prison in Nashville, Tennessee, operated by the Tennessee Department of Correction. The prison opened in 1989 and replaced its 100-year-old neighbor, the Tennessee State Penitentiary. RMSI, which is made up by 20 different buildings, sits on 132 acres (0.53 km2) located off Cockrill Bend Boulevard in Nashville. Riverbend's designated capacity is 714 offenders. Of that number, 480 are classified as high risk.
The Varner Unit is a high-security state prison for men of the Arkansas Department of Correction in Varner, Choctaw Township, unincorporated Lincoln County, Arkansas, United States. It is located along U.S. Highway 65, near Grady, and 28 miles (45 km) south of Pine Bluff. The prison can house over 1,600 prisoners, and it includes a 468-bed supermax facility. The supermax and non-supermax facilities are separate from one another.
James Donald French was an American double murderer who was the last person executed under Oklahoma's death penalty laws prior to Furman v. Georgia, which suspended capital punishment in the United States from 1972 until 1976.
Capital punishment in Connecticut formerly existed as an available sanction for a criminal defendant upon conviction for the commission of a capital offense. Since the 1976 United States Supreme Court decision in Gregg v. Georgia until Connecticut repealed capital punishment in 2012, Connecticut had only executed one person, Michael Bruce Ross in 2005. Initially, the 2012 law allowed executions to proceed for those still on death row and convicted under the previous law, but on August 13, 2015, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that applying the death penalty only for past cases was unconstitutional.
Capital punishment in Alabama is a legal penalty. Alabama has the highest per capita capital sentencing rate in the United States. In some years, its courts impose more death sentences than Texas, a state that has a population five times as large. However, Texas has a higher rate of executions both in absolute terms and per capita.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of South Dakota.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Florida.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Mississippi.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia reintroduced the death penalty in 1973 after Furman v. Georgia ruled all states' death penalty statutes unconstitutional. The first execution to take place afterwards occurred in 1983.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Between 1718 and 2021, more than 680 people have been executed in South Carolina. After the nationwide capital punishment ban was overturned in 1976, South Carolina has executed 43 people.
Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Tennessee.
Capital punishment in Missouri first used in 1810 is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Missouri.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Kentucky.