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State & Federal

Arkansas

Timeline

1820 – First known exe­cu­tion in Arkansas, Thomas Dickinson hung for murder.

1913 – Arkansas replaces hang­ing with elec­tro­cu­tion as its method of execution.

1967 – Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller declares a mora­to­ri­um on executions

1970 – Governor Rockefeller grants clemen­cy to all 15 men on death row

1972 – The Supreme Court strikes down the death penal­ty in Furman v. Georgia.

1973 – Arkansas pass­es a law rein­stat­ing capital punishment.

1976 – The Supreme Court rein­states the death penal­ty when it upholds Georgia’s statute in Gregg v. Georgia.

1990 – Arkansas resumes exe­cu­tions; aban­dons elec­tro­cu­tion in favor of lethal injec­tion as its method of execution.

1992 – Presidential can­di­date and Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton leaves the cam­paign trail to over­see the exe­cu­tion of Ricky Ray Rector, who was intellectually disabled.

2001 — Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee signs a law pro­vid­ing pro­vid­ing for Defense Counsel Standards and DNA testing.

2011 – Amid a nation­wide exe­cu­tion drug short­age, Arkansas’ sup­ply of one exe­cu­tion drug is seized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

2012 – The Arkansas Supreme Court finds part of the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because it del­e­gates too much author­i­ty to the Department of Corrections in car­ry­ing out executions.

2013 – The Arkansas leg­is­la­ture rewrites its exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and pass­es a law shield­ing the iden­ti­ties of its exe­cu­tion drug sup­pli­ers; the Department of Corrections announces its inten­tion to use phe­no­bar­bi­tal for executions.

2015 – Arkansas Supreme Court upholds new exe­cu­tion pro­to­col; Governor Asa Hutchinson sets dates for eight exe­cu­tions between October 2015 and January 2016, with four sets of dou­ble exe­cu­tions sched­uled one month apart. The Arkansas Supreme Court impos­es a stay on exe­cu­tions while eval­u­at­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the 2013 secrecy law.

2016 – Arkansas Supreme Court upholds Arkansas secre­cy law. The U.S. Supreme Court declines to review Arkansas death-row pris­on­ers’ chal­lenge to the state’s execution protocol.

2017 – Governor Asa Hutchinson sets dates for eight exe­cu­tions to be car­ried out in an unprece­dent­ed four sets of dou­ble exe­cu­tions over an 11-day peri­od in April. Four are ulti­mate­ly car­ried out and four are stayed. Executioners botched the exe­cu­tions of Jack Jones and Kenneth Williams.

2018 — Arkansas Supreme Court strikes down the state’s death penal­ty men­tal com­pe­ten­cy law for vio­lat­ing due process. The law pre­vi­ous­ly gave the state’s prison direc­tor exclu­sive author­i­ty to deter­mine a death row pris­on­er’s com­pe­ten­cy to be executed.

2020 — U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker rejects a claim, filed on behalf of sev­en­teen inmates, that use of mida­zo­lam in lethal injec­tion vio­lates the con­sti­tu­tion­al ban on cru­el and unusual punishment.

2022 — A fed­er­al appel­late court upholds the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the three-drug lethal injec­tion prot­col in Arkansas.

Famous Cases

Ricky Ray Rector

Rector was exe­cut­ed in 1992 for the mur­der of police offi­cer Robert Martin. After shoot­ing Officer Martin, Rector shot him­self in the head in an appar­ent suicide attempt.

The sui­cide attempt destroyed his frontal lobe and left him severe­ly brain dam­aged, ren­der­ing him inca­pable of under­stand­ing his pend­ing exe­cu­tion. For his last meal, he left his pecan pie on the side of the tray, telling the guards who had come to take him to the exe­cu­tion cham­ber that he was sav­ing it ​“for later.”

It took a team of five exe­cu­tion­ers over 50 min­utes to find a suit­able vein in which to inject the lethal cock­tail. During that time, wit­ness­es heard con­tin­ued moan­ing from the inmate as he was jabbed over and over again with the execution needle.

Despite Rector’s inabil­i­ty to under­stand the crim­i­nal charges filed against him or his result­ing death sen­tence, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton made of point of return­ing to Arkansas and over­see­ing Rector’s exe­cu­tion dur­ing his Presidential cam­paign, in order to show the elec­torate that he was not soft on crime.

Barry Fairchild

In 1995 Barry Lee Fairchild was exe­cut­ed for the 1983 mur­der of Marjorie Mason. Ms. Mason had been raped and shot twice in the head. Acting on a tip from an unnamed infor­mant now known to be inac­cu­rate, the police sur­round­ed Barry Fairchild and released their dog on him. He was bit­ten on the neck, side, and head. After being treat­ed for the dog bites, he was ques­tioned through­out the night and gave two conflicting confessions.

During his tri­al, Fairchild recant­ed his con­fes­sions and tes­ti­fied that Sheriff Tommy Robinson beat him and threat­ened to kill him if he did not con­fess. He tes­ti­fied that when he told the police he knew noth­ing of the crime, the sher­iff hit him on the head with a shot­gun and anoth­er man kicked him in the stom­ach. He said he had been rehearsed for twen­ty min­utes on what to say on tape.

No phys­i­cal evi­dence ever linked Fairchild to Mason’s rape or mur­der: no fin­ger­prints on her belong­ings could be matched to his; a hat found near the crime scene and iden­ti­fied by wit­ness­es as Fairchild’s con­tained no strands of his hair; semen found on the victim’s body was incon­sis­tent with his blood type. Nonetheless, the jury found Fairchild guilty of rape and murder.

During sub­se­quent appeals, thir­teen men pub­licly dis­closed that they too had been detained for ques­tion­ing about the Mason mur­der and were tor­tured. They tes­ti­fied that they had been sub­ject­ed to vio­lent beat­ings, and that guns had been put to their heads while they were told to con­fess. One of these men report­ed that he heard deputies in the next room tor­ture Fairchild into confessing.

During the fourth peti­tion the judge found that the evi­dence showed that Fairchild was ​“not the one who shot and killed Ms. Mason,” but was an accom­plice. As such, the death sen­tence was reversed, and a sen­tence of life in prison with­out parole was imposed in its stead.

In 1994, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the low­er court’s deci­sion, and with­out refut­ing the legal con­clu­sion that the Arkansas cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute had been vio­lat­ed, the Appellate Court held that it was too late to make this argu­ment. The death sen­tence was rein­stat­ed, and Fairchild became the eleventh Arkansan put to death under the state’s mod­ern cap­i­tal punishment statute.

Damien Echols

Damien Echols was one of the ​“West Memphis Three,” wrong­ly con­vict­ed in 1994 of the mur­ders of three 8‑year old Cub Scouts the year before. Echols, who had been sen­tenced death, and his co-defen­dants Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who received life sen­tences, entered no-con­test pleas in 2011 exchange for their free­dom, after new­ly avail­able DNA evi­dence failed match any of them to the crime scene. The three were con­vict­ed after Misskelley, who is bor­der­line intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, false­ly con­fessed to the crimes fol­low­ing near­ly 12 hours of inter­ro­ga­tion. Misskelley impli­cat­ed Echols and Baldwin, although por­tions of his con­fes­sion did not match details of the case.

Kenneth Williams

On April 27, 2017, Kenneth Williams was exe­cut­ed dur­ing the course of a week in which eight exe­cu­tions had been sched­uled to be car­ried before the state’s sup­ply of the con­tro­ver­sial exe­cu­tion drug, mida­zo­lam, expired. Media wit­ness­es report­ed observ­ing Williams ​“cough­ing, con­vuls­ing, lurch­ing, jerk­ing, with sound that was audi­ble even with the micro­phone turned off” dur­ing his exe­cu­tion. Associated Press reporter Kelly Kissel said ​“Williams’ body jerked 15 times in quick suc­ces­sion — lurch­ing vio­lent­ly against the leather restraint across his chest.” Kissel, who has wit­nessed ten exe­cu­tions, not­ed that “[t]his is the most I’ve seen an inmate move three- or four-minutes in.”

Notable Exonerations

Rickey Dale Newman

An Arkansas tri­al judge dis­missed all charges against for­mer death-row pris­on­er, Rickey Dale Newman on October 11, 2017, exon­er­at­ing the intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled man after near­ly 16 years impris­on­ment for a February 2001 mur­der. The for­mer Marine also was seri­ous­ly men­tal­ly ill and home­less — suf­fer­ing from major depres­sion and chron­ic post­trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der from child­hood abuse — at the time he was charged with mur­der­ing Marie Cholette. After coer­cive inter­ro­ga­tions by police, Newman came to believe he had com­mit­ted the mur­der and false­ly con­fessed, although the phys­i­cal evi­dence con­tra­dict­ed his con­fes­sion. The court found him com­pe­tent to stand tri­al per­mit­ted him to rep­re­sent him­self. Following a one-day tri­al in which Newman told the jury he had com­mit­ted the mur­der and asked them to impose the death penal­ty, he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in June 2002. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Newman to the mur­der and DNA evi­dence on the blan­ket on which the vic­tim was found exclud­ed Newman. Nonetheless, a pros­e­cu­tion expert false­ly tes­ti­fied that hair found on Newman’s cloth­ing had come from the victim.

Newman sub­se­quent­ly sought to waive his appeals and be exe­cut­ed. However, four days before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on July 26, 2005, he per­mit­ted fed­er­al pub­lic defend­ers to seek a stay of exe­cu­tion. His lawyers obtained DNA test­ing of the hair evi­dence that dis­proved the prosecution’s tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny. They also dis­cov­ered that pros­e­cu­tors had with­held from the defense evi­dence from the mur­der scene that con­tra­dict­ed Newman’s con­fes­sion. A fed­er­al court hear­ing also pro­vid­ed evi­dence that the state’s men­tal health doc­tor had made sig­nif­i­cant errors in admin­is­ter­ing and scor­ing tests he had relied upon in tes­ti­fy­ing that Newman had been com­pe­tent to stand trial.

Notable Clemencies

Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, who declared a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions when he took office in 1967, grant­ed clemen­cy to all fif­teen men on death row in December of 1970.

Milestones in Abolition Efforts

In 2009 a near-unan­i­mous Arkansas General Assembly cre­at­ed the Arkansas Legislative Task Force on Criminal Justice. The Task Force’s stat­ed objec­tive was to study judi­cial dis­tricts to deter­mine if there is dis­crim­i­na­tion in how the most seri­ous felonies, includ­ing cap­i­tal cas­es, are han­dled and who is sub­ject to these pros­e­cu­tions. The Task Force was suc­cess­ful in iden­ti­fy­ing key areas where the state lacked ade­quate infor­ma­tion gathering procedures.

In 1993, nine years before the U.S. Supreme Court banned the exe­cu­tion of peo­ple with men­tal retar­da­tion, the Arkansas crim­i­nal code was amend­ed to cre­ate a mit­i­gat­ing cir­cum­stance for men­tal retar­da­tion in cap­i­tal mur­der cas­es. This was due in large part due to pub­lic reac­tion to the exe­cu­tion of Ricky Ray Rector in 1992.

Other Interesting Facts

Since the Supreme Court upheld state statutes that rein­stat­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1976, Arkansas is the only state to have con­duct­ed three exe­cu­tions on the same night. It has done so twice:

On August 3, 1994, under Governor Jim Guy Tucker, the state exe­cut­ed Hoyt Franklin Clines, Darryl Richley, and James William Holmes.

On January 8, 1997, under Governor Mike Huckabee, the state exe­cut­ed Paul Ruiz, Earl Van Denton, and Kirt Douglas Wainwright.

Arkansas State Capitol. Photo by Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Resources

  • Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
  • Department of Corrections
  • Prosecutors
  • Public defend­er’s office
  • Victims’ ser­vices

Arkansas Execution Totals Since 1976


News & Developments


News

Apr 29, 2024

Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

Damien…

Read More

News

Apr 27, 2022

Arkansas Marks Five Years Since End of 2017 Execution Spree

On April 27, 2017, Kenneth Williams con­vulsed vio­lent­ly as he died on the gur­ney, the fourth pris­on­er put to death in an eleven-day exe­cu­tion spree in which Arkansas intend­ed to exe­cute eight men before its sup­ply of exe­cu­tion drugs expired. It has not…

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News

Aug 18, 2021

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Barring Death Penalty for Intellectually Disabled Arkansas Death-Row Prisoner Alvin Jackson

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has upheld a fed­er­al dis­trict court rul­ing that Arkansas death-row pris­on­er Alvin Jackson is inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty because of intellectual…

Read More

News

Jun 07, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of May 31, 2021

NEWS (6/​4/​21) — Arizona: The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 deci­sion in Lynch v. Arizona, which struck down the state’s uncon­sti­tu­tion­al refusal to instruct cap­i­­tal-sen­­tenc­ing juries that defen­dants who are sen­tenced to life are not eli­gi­ble for parole, does not pro­vide grounds for a death-row pris­on­er to seek new state-court review of that…

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News

May 11, 2021

Forensic Testing Casts New Doubt on Guilt of Ledell Lee, Executed in Arkansas in 2017

Posthumous foren­sic test­ing of evi­dence in the case of Ledell Lee (pic­tured), who was exe­cut­ed in Arkansas in 2017, has found DNA from an uniden­ti­fied male on a bloody club used to kill Debra Reese 29 years ago and on a blood-soaked shirt that was wrapped around the weapon. The DNA results, released by the Innocence Project and the ACLU on April 30, 2021, raise addi­tion­al trou­bling questions about…

Read More
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View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 31 state exe­cu­tions, 1 federal execution
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include fed­er­al and military executions): 478
  • Current Death Row Population: 27
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent People Freed from Death Row: 1
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 2
  • Date of Reinstatement (fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia): March 23, 1973
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1990
  • Location of Death Row: Varner Supermax Unit in Grady, Arkansas
  • Location of Executions: Cummins Unit in Lincoln County, Arkansas
  • Capital: Little Rock
  • Region: South
  • Population: 3,011,524
  • Murder Rate: 8.02
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Can a defen­dant get death for a felony in which s/​he was not respon­si­ble for the murder?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: Lethal injec­tion for crimes on or after 7/​4/​83; oth­ers may select lethal injec­tion or electrocution
  • How is Sentence Determined?: Jury
  • Clemency Process: Governor has author­i­ty to grant clemen­cy after con­sid­er­ing rec­om­men­da­tion of Board
  • Governor: Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

State-By-State

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DPI Fact Sheet

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty

More Information


Innocence Database

Execution Database

Death Penalty Census Database

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