Arkansas’ lead­ing advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tion for peo­ple with men­tal retar­da­tion, Arc Arkansas, deliv­ered a let­ter to Governor Mike Beebe and the Arkansas Parole Board urg­ing clemen­cy for Frank Williams, Jr. because of his men­tal retar­da­tion. He is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on September 9 and the Arkansas Parole Board is hold­ing a clemen­cy hear­ing on his case on August 4. The let­ter notes that exe­cut­ing a men­tal­ly retard­ed per­son is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al based on both Arkansas’ 1993 statu­to­ry ban and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 rul­ing in Atkins v. Virginia.

Williams was held back in school three times before drop­ping out in the 10th grade. Arc Arkansas’ Chief Operating Officer, Cynthia Stone, wrote, ​“It would be a great injus­tice and a vio­la­tion of our own state laws to exe­cute Frank Williams, Jr., who is a per­son with life­long men­tal retar­da­tion.” She added, ​“The Parole Board should rec­om­mend and Governor Beebe should grant clemen­cy for Mr. Williams in order to pre­vent this ter­ri­ble injus­tice.” The let­ter fur­ther describes the cir­cum­stances of his sen­tence as trag­ic com­pound­ed by bad tim­ing and woe­ful­ly inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion.
(A. Davis, ​“Group urges clemen­cy for death-row inmate,” Arkansas Democrat Gazette, July 31, 2008). See Mental Retardation and Clemency.

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