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The Latest: Arkansas inmate hopes to avoid being 4th killed

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, center, speaks at a news conference Wednesday, April 26, 2017, with his attorneys about a letter he's sent to two panels seeking an investigation into Arkansas' attorney general and Supreme Court over his removal from hearing death penalty cases. Griffen was removed from the cases after he participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration the same day he blocked Arkansas from using a lethal injection drug. (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo) (The Associated Press)

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    FILE - In this April 14, 2017, file photo provided by Sherry Simon, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, is shown on a cot at an anti-death penalty protest outside the Governor's Mansion in Little Rock, Ark. Griffen said Thursday, April 26, 2017, he was not given a chance to explain his actions before being removed from death penalty-related cases. He asked two state panels to investigate the attorney general’s office and the state Supreme Court over his removal. (Sherry Simon via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

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    In this Monday, April 24, 2017, photo, Solomon Graves, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Correction, speaks to reporters at the Cummins Unit prison in Varner, Ark. Graves' agency relies on reporters and citizen witnesses to verify that the state has conducted an execution. A fourth execution this month is set for Thursday. (AP Photo/Kelly P. Kissel) (The Associated Press)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Latest on Arkansas' effort to execute a fourth inmate before its supply of a lethal injection drug expires on Sunday (all times local):

7:50 a.m.

Few options remain for an Arkansas death row inmate scheduled for a lethal injection Thursday night.

Kenneth Williams would be the fourth man executed in Arkansas in eight days. The state initially wanted to put eight men to death in an 11-day period before one of its execution drugs expires at midnight Sunday, but four inmates won stays.

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Williams' claim his jurors didn't consider mitigating factors. In the county where Williams was convicted, a judge refused to hear claims Williams was intellectually disabled. The Lincoln County Circuit Court said jurors considered that during Williams' sentencing phase.

Separately, a Little Rock federal judge refused to reopen a 2007 case in which she rejected Williams' effort to have his conviction and death sentence tossed out. Williams' lawyers have asked a St. Louis-based appeals court to review that Thursday.

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12:15 a.m.

Arkansas is reaching the end of its aggressive execution schedule.

Kenneth Williams is scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Thursday for the death of a former deputy warden killed after Williams escaped from prison in 1999. Williams was being held for the death of a college cheerleader when he escaped in a 500-gallon barrel of hog slop.

Williams would be the fourth inmate to die in Arkansas' execution chamber in a week. Initially, Arkansas wanted eight men executed before one of its execution drugs expires Sunday. Courts issued stays for four of the inmates.

State officials declared the previous three executions a success. The inmates' lawyers say there are still flaws in the system and that it's difficult to tell whether the inmates are suffering cruel punishment as they die.