On Thursday April 20 2017, the state of Arkansas executed their first inmate in 12 years after a long lasting legal battle that questioned aspects of the use of the death penalty in the United States. The inmate who was executed was 51 year old Ledell Lee who was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. Lee was convicted and sentenced to death for beating a woman to death with a tire iron in 1993, the relatives of the victim were at the Cummins Unit and told media Lee deserved to die for a crime that ripped their lives apart. According to the Arkansas Department of Corrections, Lee had no last words.
Although spending over two decades in prison, Lee stood by his innocence. He had filed numerous motions in various courts that had delayed the execution process. Lee was also seeking DNA tests that his lawyers claimed could prove his innocence. In the end, Lee received injections of three drugs: midazolam, to render him unconscious; vecuronium bromide, to halt his breathing; and potassium chloride, to stop his heart.
Lee is one of eight men the state originally wanted to execute over the course of 11 days before the supply of one of the drugs in its three-part lethal injection protocol expires at the end of the month. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced last month that the state would begin executing inmates who had exhausted state-level appeals. So far, courts have stopped four of the executions that were to take place.
The state's plan prompted an unprecedented flurry of legal filings that argued the process should be halted, with attorneys for the eight men attempting to block the executions, including using the argument that Midazolam, the drug used to make inmates unconscious before two more drugs paralyze and kill them, does not effectively prevent a painful death.
The state's plan prompted an unprecedented flurry of legal filings that argued the process should be halted, with attorneys for the eight men attempting to block the executions, including using the argument that Midazolam, the drug used to make inmates unconscious before two more drugs paralyze and kill them, does not effectively prevent a painful death.
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