Supreme Court Green Lights Arkansas’ Executions Despite Objections from Human Rights Groups

After nearly a dozen years, Arkansas has executed its first death row inmate, with many more scheduled to come. Ledell Lee was the first casualty of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who cast the deciding vote to allow Arkansas to proceed with a string of executions, despite the slew of legal controversies surrounding the decision.

Lee is the first on what has been described by human rights activists as a “conveyor belt of death.” Arkansas was seeking to execute 8 prisoners in 11 days, the most executions conducted by a state in such a short time since 1976. The reason for the rush is the state wants to use its stock of execution drugs before the “use by” date. In other words, Arkansas wants to execute 8 men to save the money of having to re-purchase the drugs. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissenting opinion, “Arkansas set out to execute eight people over the course of 11 days. Why these eight? Why now?…apparently the reason the State decided to proceed with these eight executions is that the ‘use by’ date of the State’s execution drug is about to expire. In my view, that factor, when considered as a determining factor separating those who live from those who die, is close to random.”

The man who was executed was Ledell Lee. Lee was a convicted rapist and murderer. According to the ACLU, the evidence in the case was circumstantial at best. Lee had been arrested and tried for previous sex offenses, however in this case, he was simply seen walking down the street of the victim, with no other physical evidence connecting him to the scene. The victim, Debra Reese, was raped, strangled and beaten to death with a tire thumper. Not only was there no evidence in the case, the judge was found to have had an affair with the prosecuting attorney – a blatant conflict of interest.

According to the ACLU report, “Lee was tried by a judge who concealed his own conflict of interest: an affair with the assistant prosecutor, to whom the judge was later married. Mr. Lee’s first state post-conviction counsel introduced the evidence of the affair by calling the judge’s ex-wife, who testified about the affair after opposing the subpoena. That lawyer, however, was so intoxicated at the hearing that the state moved for him to be drug tested after he slurred, stumbled, and made incoherent arguments.”

The ACLU also argued that Lee suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and that due to his mental status should be spared the death penalty. Lee was executed after being denied multiple appeals to the Supreme Court.

The death penalty is controversial in and of itself, with many states opting to do the humane thing and eliminate it all together. Arkansas’ plans of proceeding with the executions of 7 more prisoners is for the sole purpose of saving a buck. The drug company themselves went to court in an attempt to stop the executions. McKesson Corporation, who provided the state with the drug pancuronium bromide, told the court that the state obtained the drug under false pretense. Pancuronium is one of the three drugs used in the cocktail used to execute prisoners, with midazolam being the source of contention also. Despite the cries from human rights groups and the drug company itself, the Supreme Court decided to allow the executions to proceed. Both Jack Jones and Marcell Williams are scheduled to die on April 24.

Sources: Heavy, Slate, News Day.

This article (Supreme Court Green Lights Arkansas’ Executions Despite Objections from Human Rights Groups) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.

Supporting Anonymous’ Independent & Investigative News is important to us. Please, follow us on Twitter: Follow @AnonymousNewsHQ