The following is a list of people executed by the U.S. state of Arkansas since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in the United States.
31 people have been executed in Arkansas since 1976: 30 males and 1 female (Christina Marie Riggs). All but John Swindler (who was executed by electric chair) were executed by lethal injection. All were executed for the crime of murder. [1]
No. | Name | Race | Age | Sex | Date of execution | Method | Victim(s) | Governor |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | John Edward Swindler | White | 46 | M | June 18, 1990 | Electrocution | Fort Smith police officer Randy Basnett [lower-alpha 1] | Bill Clinton |
2 | Ronald Gene Simmons | White | 49 | M | June 25, 1990 | Lethal injection | 16 murder victims [lower-alpha 2] | |
3 | Ricky Ray Rector | Black | 42 | M | January 24, 1992 | Conway police officer Robert Martin | ||
4 | Steven Douglas Hill | White | 25 | M | May 7, 1992 | Arkansas State police officer Robert Klein | ||
5 | Edward Charles Pickens | Black | 39 | M | May 11, 1994 | Wesley Noble | Jim Guy Tucker | |
6 | Jonas Hoten Whitmore | White | 50 | M | Essie Mae Black | |||
7 | Hoyt Franklin Clines | White | 37 | M | August 3, 1994 | Donald Lehman | ||
8 | Darryl V. Richley | White | 43 | M | ||||
9 | James William Holmes | White | 37 | M | ||||
10 | Richard Wayne Snell | White | 64 | M | April 19, 1995 | William Stumpp | ||
11 | Barry Lee Fairchild | Black | 41 | M | August 31, 1995 | Marjorie Mason | ||
12 | William Frank Parker | White | 41 | M | August 8, 1996 | James Warren and Sandra Warren | Mike Huckabee | |
13 | Paul Ruiz | Hispanic | 49 | M | January 8, 1997 | Marvin Richie and Opal James | ||
14 | Earl Von Denton | White | 47 | M | ||||
15 | Kirt Douglas Wainwright | Black | 30 | M | Barbara Smith | |||
16 | Eugene Wallace Perry | White | 53 | M | August 6, 1997 | Kenneth Staton and Suzanne Staton-Ware | ||
17 | Wilburn A. Henderson | White | 56 | M | July 8, 1998 | Willa Dean O'Neal | ||
18 | Johnie Michael Cox | White | 42 | M | February 16, 1999 | Marie Sullens, Margaret Brown, and Billy Brown | ||
19 | Marion Albert Pruett | White | 49 | M | April 12, 1999 | Bobbie Jean Robertson [lower-alpha 3] | ||
20 | Mark Edward Gardner | White | 43 | M | September 8, 1999 | Joe Joyce, Martha Joyce, and Sara McCurdy | ||
21 | Alan Willett | White | 52 | M | Eric Willett and Roger Willett | |||
22 | Christina Marie Riggs | White | 28 | F | May 2, 2000 | Justin Riggs and Shelby Alexis Riggs | ||
23 | David Dewayne Johnson | Black | 37 | M | December 19, 2000 | Leon Brown | ||
24 | Clay King Smith | White | 30 | M | May 8, 2001 | 5 murder victims [lower-alpha 4] | ||
25 | Riley Dobi Noel | Black | 31 | M | July 9, 2003 | Marcell Young, Malak Hussian, and Mustafa Hussian | ||
26 | Charles Laverne Singleton | Black | 44 | M | January 6, 2004 | Mary Lou York | ||
27 | Eric Randall Nance | White | 45 | M | November 28, 2005 | Julie Heath | ||
28 | Ledell T. Lee | Black | 51 | M | April 20, 2017 | Debra Reese | Asa Hutchinson | |
29 | Jack Harold Jones Jr. | White | 52 | M | April 24, 2017 | Mary Phillips [lower-alpha 5] | ||
30 | Marcel Wayne Williams | Black | 46 | M | Stacy Rae Errickson | |||
31 | Kenneth Dewayne Williams | Black | 38 | M | April 27, 2017 | Cecil Boren [lower-alpha 6] |
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty throughout the country at the federal level, in 27 states, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 states have the ability to execute death sentences, with the other seven, as well as the federal government, being subject to different types of moratoriums.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arkansas.
John Edward Swindler was an American murderer and suspected serial killer who was executed by the state of Arkansas for the 1976 murder of a Fort Smith police officer. He was also convicted of the murders of two teenagers in Columbia, South Carolina, and was charged but never convicted of another murder in Florida. Swindler was the first person to be executed by the state of Arkansas since 1964, and is the only person to have been executed in the electric chair in Arkansas since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976.
Capital punishment for juveniles in the United States existed until March 2, 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in Roper v. Simmons. Prior to Roper, there were 71 people on death row in the United States for crimes committed as juveniles.
The debate over capital punishment in the United States existed as early as the colonial period. As of April 2022, it remains a legal penalty within 28 states, the federal government, and military criminal justice systems. The states of Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington abolished the death penalty within the last decade alone.
Hanging has been practiced legally in the United States of America from before the nation's birth, up to 1972 when the United States Supreme Court found capital punishment to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Four years later, the Supreme Court overturned its previous ruling, and in 1976, capital punishment was again legalized in the United States. As of 2023, only New Hampshire has a law specifying hanging as an available secondary method of execution, and even then only for the one remaining capital punishment sentence in the state.
Capital punishment is currently a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Kansas, although it has not been used since 1965.
The relationship between race and capital punishment in the United States has been studied extensively. As of 2014, 42 percent of those on death row in the United States were Black. As of October 2002, there were 12 executions of White defendants where the murder victim was Black, however, there were 178 executed defendants who were Black with a White murder victim. Since then, the number of white defendants executed where the murder victim was black has increased to just 21, whereas the number of Black defendants executed where the murder victim was White has increased to 299. 54 percent of people wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in the United States are black.