Entries tagged with “Ledell Lee

Executions

Executions Overview

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Botched Executions

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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 exe­cut­ed anyone…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Apr 19, 2017

Arkansas Prisoners, Asserting Their Innocence, File Requests for DNA Testing

Two Arkansas death-row pris­on­ers who are sched­uled be exe­cut­ed on April 20 have asked the Arkansas courts to stay their exe­cu­tions to per­mit DNA test­ing in their cas­es. Stacey Johnson (pic­tured, l.) and Ledell Lee (pic­tured, r.) both say they did not com­mit the crimes for which they were sen­tenced to death, and both say that DNA test­ing meth­ods not avail­able at the time of their tri­als could…

Policy Issues

Executions Overview

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Lethal Injection

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Dec 08, 2017

Background on Arkansas April 2017 Executions

Eight exe­cu­tions were sched­uled in Arkansas from April 17 – 27, 2017. The state sched­uled two exe­cu­tions per day on four days dur­ing that peri­od. The men sched­uled for exe­cu­tion were (top row, from left to right) Bruce Ward, Marcel Williams, Jason McGehee, and Kenneth Williams; (bot­tom row, from left to right) Stacey Johnson, Ledell Lee, Don Davis, and Jack Jones. The state car­ried out four exe­cu­tions dur­ing this…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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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 Lee’s…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Jan 29, 2020

Lawsuit Seeks DNA and Fingerprint Testing that Could Show Arkansas Executed an Innocent Man

In its unprece­dent­ed rush to exe­cute eight pris­on­ers over an eleven-day peri­od in April 2017, Arkansas may have exe­cut­ed an inno­cent man. Civil rights and legal reform orga­ni­za­tions filed a state Freedom of Information Act law­suit on January 23, 2020 on behalf of the broth­er of Ledell Lee (pic­tured), a man Arkansas exe­cut­ed on April 20, 2017. The law­suit argues that DNA and fin­ger­print evi­dence that courts blocked the defense from test­ing in the days leading…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Feb 07, 2020

States Continue to Oppose DNA Testing in Death Penalty Appeals, Attorneys Ask Why Don’t They Want to Learn the Truth?

The last three men sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Georgia said they did not com­mit the killing and that DNA test­ing that was not avail­able at the time of tri­al could prove it. In two of the cas­es, vic­tim fam­i­ly mem­bers sup­port­ed the request for test­ing. Prosecutors opposed the requests, and the courts refused to allow the test­ing. Two of the three men were exe­cut­ed, with doubts still swirling as to their…