This combination of undated file photos provided by the Arkansas Department of Correction shows death-row inmates Jack Jones, left, and Marcel Williams. Arkansas Department of Correction via AP
WASHINGTON — If no court steps in, Arkansas is poised to become the first state in more than 15 years to execute two people in one night — just four days after the state held its first execution in more than a decade.
At 7 p.m. Central Time, Arkansas is due to execute Jack Jones for the 1995 murder and rape of Mary Phillips during a robbery at her accounting office while her 11-year-old daughter watched.
Shortly thereafter, Marcel Williams is scheduled to be executed for abducting, raping, and killing Stacy Rae Erickson, a 22-year-old mother of two, in 1994.
The Arkansas Supreme Court and US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit had denied all pending requests for stays of execution for both Jones and Williams before 5 p.m. Eastern Time — sending both men’s lawyers to the US Supreme Court for a final requests to stop the executions. Should the Supreme Court deny their requests, and no other courts take action to stop the executions, both will be allowed to proceed as planned.
The last state to attempt two executions in one day was Oklahoma. In 2014, the state had scheduled the executions of Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner for the evening of April 29, 2014. However, after Lockett’s execution went awry — one of several botched executions using the sedative midazolam in 2014 — Warner’s execution was delayed.
On Monday night, as it did last week, Arkansas plans to use the same three drugs in its protocol as Oklahoma had been using that night.
The last state to successfully carry out two executions on one night was Texas — in 2000.
Arkansas, which had scheduled eight executions over a two-week period before its supply of midazolam expires at the end of the month, only conducted one of the four executions it had set for this past week — executing Ledell Lee on April 20.
In addition to Jones and Marcel Williams, the state plans to execute Kenneth Williams on Thursday. A federal judge already halted the originally planned Thursday execution of Jason McGehee, due to issues with the way the condensed execution schedule had altered the state’s clemency process.
