August has been a busy month for capital punishment in Arkansas even though no executions are scheduled and the state’s governor said she’s in no rush to resume executions following an eight-year pause.
The first development came Aug. 5 when a new law went into effect permitting the use of nitrogen gas for executions, followed hours later with a lawsuit filed by 10 Death Row inmates challenging the constitutionality of the statute Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed in March.
Those events prompted 40 Arkansas faith leaders to submit a letter to Sanders Aug. 21 urging her not to allow the gas to be used in executions and, better yet, not to resume the death penalty in any form.
“Our call not to restart executions in our state is an expression of our desire to uphold a humane vision of seeking safety through acknowledging harm, repairing the harm as able, and changing society so the harm can’t happen again,” the letter says.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
It was signed by a range of Buddhist, Jewish, Catholic and Protestant clergy including minsters from Second Baptist Church and New Millennium Church in Little Rock.
“Like many of Arkansas’ civil leaders who share our values, we long to see the mercy, compassion, equity and justice of God reflected in public policies that promote safety, human dignity and healing for all our citizens,” the faith leaders say.
Arkansas was the fifth state to adopt nitrogen gas for executions following Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
Alabama and Louisiana are the only two states to actually use the method so far, and in both cases witnesses reported violent shaking and convulsions as the gas suffocated the condemned men.
“Witnesses to Alabama’s (January 2024) execution of Kenneth Smith reported that he convulsed, writhed and gasped for air for minutes before losing consciousness — contradicting claims that this method is swift or painless,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in opposition to Arkansas Act 302.
Louisiana’s March execution of Jessie Hoffman induced “twitches, clenched hands and jerking throughout the process,” according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The use of gas asphyxiation as a manner of execution is inhumane, cruel, degrading “or even torture,” the United Nations said. The technique also violates the Convention Against Torture co-signed by the United States and other international protocols against cruel and unusual punishments.
But the Arkansas Legislature charged ahead with the measure due to growing manufacturer opposition to providing drugs needed for lethal injections. The state hasn’t carried out an execution since 2017, when it put four inmates to death just before its supply of lethal injection sedatives expired.
Tim Griffin
“As a state, we have failed to keep our promises to the friends and family of victims to execute those sentenced to death under our laws. … That ends now. (HB-1489) gives the state the tools needed to carry out these sentences and deliver justice,” state Attorney General Tim Griffin said.
But Sanders has declined to provide a timetable for resuming executions, the Associated Press reported in April.
“I think anybody that is rushing into a decision like that is not the one making the decision and doesn’t understand the severity and the responsibility that comes with it,” she said. “I’m certainly not rushing to take action on that. We will be very thoughtful and deliberative as we go through the process.”
The 32-page complaint filed by Death Row inmates earlier this month argues the state law is unconstitutional because it sets no standards or limits on how the nitrogen gas can be used in executions and because the prisoners’ capital sentences specified death by lethal injection, not nitrogen hypoxia.
The law also is unconstitutional because it grants the head of the Arkansas Division of Correction “absolute, unfettered discretion to choose between lethal injection and nitrogen hypoxia as the means for executing the plaintiffs.”
In their letter to Gov. Sanders, faith leaders implored her to consider scientific research and eyewitness accounts about the cruelty of execution by gas asphyxiation.
“Together, we prayerfully urge you to investigate the problems associated with execution by means of gas suffocation and continue to recognize the value of every human life. Execution by means of gas suffocation is at odds with recognizing the inherent human dignity in every person.”
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