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AG asks governor to set execution date for death-row inmate Tuesday, Jun 3, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Attorney General Dustin McDaniel asked Gov. Mike Beebe on Monday to set an execution date for death-row inmate Frank Williams Jr. The request was the first for an execution date in Arkansas since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April against a legal challenge to the use of lethal injection to put an inmate to death. Williams was sentenced to death in the 1992 shooting death of farmer Clyde Spence of Bradley. Williams was on a work-release program for the state Department of Correction at the time and had recently been fired from his prison work-release job at Spence's farm. Matt DeCample, spokesman for the governor, said Monday it will probably a few weeks before the governor sets an execution date. "The governor has said many times that this is one of the most solemn and serious duties he has as governor," DeCample said. "What he will do with this one is a thorough review of the transcript." Since becoming governor in January 2007, Beebe has set execution dates for three death-row inmates, but U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright later issued stays until the U.S. Supreme Court could rule on a legal challenge to the use of lethal injection. The high court in April upheld Kentucky's procedure. Twenty-seven death-row inmates have been executed in Arkansas since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty constitutional in 1976. The last inmate to be executed in Arkansas was Eric Nance, who was put to death on Nov. 29, 2005. Julie Brain, Williams' federal public defender, declined comment Monday. |
