Kenneth Williams, 38 and pictured below, was put to death by lethal injection at the state’s Cummins Unit prison on Thursday night.
Williams was sentenced to death for killing two people after escaping from a prison where he had been serving a life sentence for murdering a cheerleader.
He was pronounced dead at 11.05pm local time (4.05 UK).
The triple killer reportedly took 13 minutes to due, convulsing 20 times in the process.
His huge final meal consisted of:
- two pieces of fried chicken,
- barbecue beans,
- sweet rice,
- whole kernel corn,
- stewed seasoned tomatoes,
- two cinnamon rolls,
- two cookies,
- four slices of bread
- and fruit punch, according to US media reports.
In a statement read out in the death chamber, Williams said:
“I extend my sincerest of apologies to the families I have senselessly wronged and deprived of their loved ones.
“I was more than wrong. The crimes I perpetrated against you all was senseless, extremely hurtful and inexcusable.”
Williams was sentenced to death for killing a former deputy warden, Cecil Boren, after he escaped from prison in 1999. At the time of his escape in a barrel of hog slop, Williams was less than three weeks into a life term for the death of a college cheerleader.
The state, which had not held an execution in 12 years until this month, had already put three other inmates to death.
- Ledell Lee, 51, was executed first on April 20 for beating 26-year-old Debra Reese to death during a 1993 robbery.
Lee had been trying to get DNA testing on a shoe and a hair strand that he believes would prove his innocence. But his plea was rejected by a judge because Lee took too long to ask for the test after refraining from such a request for almost 12 years.
- On Monday, April 25, Arkansas carried out back-to-back executions of Marcel Williams, 46 & 52-year-old Jack Jones, becoming the first US state to put more than one inmate to death on the same day in 17 years.
Convicted killer Marcel Williams, 46, was pronounced dead around 10pm local time, a little more than three hours after state officials executed another murderer, 52-year-old Jack Jones.
The two men were among eight that the state had initially planned to execute over the course of 11 days this month, prompted by the impending expiration date of the state’s supplies of midazolam, a sedative used as part of the three-drug protocol.
Arkansas currently does not have a schedule to execute any more inmates.
The state had initially planned to execute eight inmates in 11 days in April, the most of any state in so short a period since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Four of those executions were halted by various courts.
The unprecedented schedule, set because a drug in the state’s execution mix expires at the end of April, prompted criticism that Arkansas was acting recklessly.
It also set off legal filings that raised questions about U.S. death chamber protocols, troubled prosecutions and difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs.
Source – MirrorUK
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