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FULL TITLE: Killer who murdered a cheerleader and two others APOLOGIZES for his 'senseless' crimes and convulses on the execution gurney - as he becomes the last Arkansas inmate to be put to death before drug expires A man put to death in Arkansas over the murder of a cheerleader and two others was left lurching and convulsing on the execution gurney before he died. Kenneth Williams, 38, was given the lethal injection on Thursday after legal motions delayed the procedure for more than two hours. The executed murderer was the fourth and final inmate to be put to death...

LITTLE ROCK —Arkansas put convicted killer Kenneth Williams to death Thursday night— the last of a controversial series of executions carried out as the state moved to carry out the sentences before its supply of a lethal injection drug expired. Arkansas Department of Correction Spokesman Solomon Graves said that the lethal injection was administered at 10:52 p.m. local time (11:52 p.m. ET) and Williams was declared dead at 11:05 p.m. Williams, 38, was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET) via lethal injection at the Cummins Unit, where the state's death chamber is housed, about 75...

It’s not entirely fair to judge a Supreme Court justice based on his first vote. Urgent matters arise unexpectedly, and the court must sometimes act quickly. Still, it’s worth paying special attention to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s vote late Thursday night to deny a stay of execution for Ledell Lee, an Arkansas man who was sentenced to death in 1995 for murdering a woman named Debra Reese with a tire thumper. After Justice Gorsuch, along with the four other conservative justices, denied his final appeal without explanation, Mr. Lee, who maintained his innocence until the end, was executed by lethal injection....

Two inmates received lethal injections on the same gurney Monday night about three hours apart as Arkansas completed the nation's first double execution since 2000, just days after the state ended a nearly 12-year hiatus on administering capital punishment. While the first inmate, Jack Jones, 52, was executed on schedule, shortly after 7 p.m., attorneys for the second, Marcel Williams, 46, convinced a federal judge minutes later to briefly delay his execution over concerns about how the earlier one was carried out. They claimed Jones "was moving his lips and gulping for air," an account the state's attorney general denied,...

FULL TITLE: I'm not a monster': Killer tells the woman who saw him rape and murder her mother 22 years ago 'I'm sorry' in sickening plea for forgiveness as he is put to death in America's first double execution in 17 years Arkansas executed two death row inmates on Monday night in America’s first double execution in 17 years. The first inmate to be put to death was Jack H. Jones, Jr, 52, who received a lethal injection after delivering a two-minute final statement - during which he told his victim's daughter 'I'm sorry' 22 years after she watched him...

Full title................... The U.S. Supreme Court is refusing to block the first of two scheduled Arkansas lethal injections in one night............

A coalition of several groups opposed to the death penalty protested against 7 executions scheduled in the State of Arkansas. The rally was held at the Arkansas State Capitol on Friday April 14th. The 2 main guest speakers were West Memphis 3 suspect Damien Nichols and Movie Star Johnny Depp. Due to multiple lawsuits regarding the Death Penalty, executions by the state have been restricted to lethal injection and only with certain government approved drugs. Opponents of the death penalty claim that 1 and 10 criminals executed are innocent. Many activists also advocate for therapy of those on death row....

On Thursday night, Arkansas executed Ledell Lee—the state’s first execution in 12 years. Lee is one of eight men whom Arkansas originally planned to kill over 11 days before one drug in the three-drug lethal injection cocktail expires. Four of these men have received stays of execution, but Lee’s final plea to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected by a 5–4 vote. Justice Neil Gorsuch cast the deciding vote allowing Lee to die. It was his first vote cast as a justice of the court.

(CNN)Arkansas executed convicted murderer Ledell Lee, the state's first inmate put to death in more than a decade. Lee, 51, was administered the lethal injection at 11:44 p.m. local time on Thursday (12:44 a.m. ET). He was pronounced dead 12 minutes later.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The latest ruling from the 8th Circuit Court has postponed Lee's execution -- originally scheduled for 7 p.m. -- to 8:15 p.m. There are no other legal barriers at this time hindering his execution from moving forward. Thursday afternoon, the Arkansas Supreme Court denied Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's request for reconsideration on the stay that was granted for Stacey Johnson. Johnson's stay will not be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, meaning his scheduled execution will not happen.

DANVILLE, Ark. (AP) - A Chinese company that makes food for pets has announced plans to open in Arkansas and bring 70 jobs to the state. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission announced Monday that Pet Won Pet Products will locate in Danville in a plant formerly occupied by Petit Jean Poultry....

It is a plea for mercy -- not out of the Arkansas statutes but from an older and more venerable legal code: Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. But it's a plea that cannot be made today on behalf of the people of this sovereign state. For we still have the death penalty, still tell pollsters we like it and insist that our politicians bow to it before sending them to Little Rock. We know exactly what we do. And the whole world is watching. Vengeance is mine, sayeth the almighty State of Arkansas -- because...

Lawyers for Arkansas inmates condemned to die Thursday in a planned double execution are claiming they are innocent and one of them says advanced DNA techniques could show he didn't kill a woman in 1993. Their strategy to win stays of execution is in marked contrast to the first two inmates who faced the death chamber in Arkansas and were spared Monday by arguing they should not be put to death because of mental health issues. Arkansas officials are vowing to press ahead with the Thursday executions despite the setback to plans to resume capital punishment after a 12-year hiatus.

On the eve of what Arkansas officials hoped would be the state’s first executions in more than a decade, they faced off with death-row inmates in multiple legal battles over whether some or any of the lethal injections would take place as scheduled. At the heart of the fight is an unprecedented flurry of executions that have pushed Arkansas to the forefront of the American death penalty at a time when states are increasingly retreating from the practice. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) scheduled eight lethal injections to take place over an 11-day window, a pace unmatched in the modern...

Was “ Easter” actually borrowed or rather usurped from a pagan celebration? The argument largely rests on the supposed pagan names for the celebration in English and German (“Easter”, “Ostern”). Note, however, that in most other European languages, the celebration’s name is derived from Pascha (Greek), from Pesach, (Hebrew), Passover. Easter is the Christian Passover. [large snips here and throughout] The usual argument for the pagan origins of Easter is based on Venerable Bede (673-735), an English monk who wrote: “ … Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month" and which was once called after a goddess...

The Texas attorney general led a 15-state coalition Monday defending President Trump’s revised immigration order, amid lawsuits opposing the plan to halt immigration from six countries. In a friend-of-the-court amicus brief to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 13 other state attorneys general and Republican Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, laid out constitutional and federal statutory provisions defending Trump’s authority. The attorneys general also defended Trump’s “lawful actions” to revise the executive order, which was blocked last month by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit. “The president’s revised immigration order is constitutional, lawful, addresses the 9th Circuit’s concerns and...

The Arkansas General Assembly has declared that “pornography has created a public health crisis,” leading to a broad “spectrum” of public health “impacts and societal harms.” The Assembly also stated that pornography can increase “the demand for prostitution and the sex trafficking and slavery of children and young adults, primarily girls.” The Resolution, HR 1042, is an official recognition by the Arkansas government. It is not a law. It reflects the official view of the legislature and a copy of the Resolution is sent to the director of the Department of Health in Arkansas. Similar resolutuions have passed in South...

It's easy enough to be in favor of the death penalty for abstract reasons. There's revenge, for one, which goes under the alias of justice. There's obedience to the letter of the law rather than its spirit. There are at least as many reasons to favor the death penalty in legalistic debate as there are prisoners waiting to be lined up and killed, all of whom have names, families, friends and a grave waiting to receive their lifeless bodies once they're put to death: --Don Davis and Bruce Earl Ward, whose executions have been set for April 17. --Ledelle Lee...

Representatives from 13 states including 12 state attorneys general and one governor filed a motion in support of President Trump’s temporary travel ban. From the Dallas Morning News: Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday led a coalition of 13 states in filing a brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals defending President Donald Trump’s revised immigration order.In the brief, Paxton and representatives from 12 other states argue that the Trump administration’s new order is legal and falls under the president’s power over foreign affairs and national security. Those joining the brief included Paxton plus AG’s in the...

Ghetto Queen Gets Welfare From 3 States Admits to $262,691 in Food Stamp Fraud