The lawyer of a convicted killer who was put to death by lethal injection Thursday has demanded an investigation after his client repeatedly convulsed during the "horrifying" execution.
Media witnesses reported "coughing, convulsing, lurching, jerking" for a 10 to 20 second period during the execution of Kenneth Williams at the Cummins Unit, where the Arkansas death chamber is housed.
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"This is the most I've seen an inmate move three or four minutes in," said Associated Press reporter Kelly Kissel, who witnessed his tenth execution Thursday night.
Kissel explained that Williams "lurched" 15 times in quick succession, followed by five slower lurches, three minutes after the sedative midazolam was introduced.
Kissel said two other witnesses from local media organizations, Donna Terrell of Fox 16 and Knowles Adkisson of the Pine Bluff Commercial, agreed with his assessment and also said that Williams could be heard after the microphone to the death chamber was turned off.
Williams' attorney called for an investigation and called the descriptions "horrifying."
"This is very disturbing, but not at all surprising, given the history of the risky sedative midazolam, which has been used in many botched executions," said Shawn Nolan, an attorney who had taken up Williams case two weeks prior to the execution.
State officials pushed back against the allegations that the execution might have been "botched" and allegations it did not follow the protocol.
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"The executions were carried out in accordance with those protocols in the four, there was not any indication of pain — which was an objective and concern that had been expressed by the defense lawyers."
"I see no reason for any investigation other than the routine that is done after every execution," he said.
Earlier, J.R. Davis, spokesman for Hutchinson, described the lurches as "involuntary muscular reaction to the midazolam." Though he had not witnessed the execution, he said the medical community supported the drug's safe use and that this reaction did not mean the procedure had been painful.
"We tried over and over again to get the state to comport with their own protocol to avoid torturing our client to death, and yet reports from the execution witnesses indicate that Mr. Williams suffered during this execution," Nolan said in a statement.
"Any amount of movement he might've had was far less than any of his victims," said Jodie Efird, one of the victim's daughters who attended the execution.
Williams had been serving a life sentence for the Dec. 1998 murder of a University of an Arkansas-Pine Bluff cheerleader. Then 20, the inmate escaped after only serving a month at the Cummins Unit by hiding inside a barrel of pig slop that a garbage truck had removed from the prison grounds.
The former gang member shot and killed Cecil Boren, stole his truck, led police on a high-speed pursuit and killed another man, Michael Greenwood, in a resulting car accident.
A jury sentenced Williams to death for the 1999 murder of Boren, a 57-year-old former warden of the prison where Williams was executed.
Williams in a statement apologized to the families of his victims.
"I was more than wrong. The crimes I perpetrated against you all was senseless, extremely hurtful and inexcusable. I humbly beg your forgiveness and pray you find the peace, healing and closure you all deserve," Williams, who calls himself a preacher, said in the statement.
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For Williams' last meal, he asked for the sacrament of communion to be provided by his spiritual adviser.
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The Greenwood family asked for his life to be spared, but other victim families do contend that this execution is the only way for their loss to be fully punctuated. The
Boren family wanted the execution to be carried out.
So he was a 'preacher' now, was he? I wonder if would have become a preacher if he wasn't arrested for a brutal murder and attempted murder, (and confessed to another murder during the time he murdered Dominique), escaped prison, killed two more people and was arrested again and sentenced to death. Ummmm...no?
