LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The Latest on executions in Arkansas (all times local):
11:50 a.m.
Arkansas’ governor says he intends to spare the life of a death row inmate the state had planned to execute in April.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Friday said he planned to grant clemency to Jason McGehee, commuting his sentence from death to life without parole.
McGehee had been sentenced to death in the 1996 beating death of 15-year-old Johnny Melbourne Jr.
McGehee was among eight death row inmates Arkansas intended to execute in April, but had been spared after a federal judge put his execution on hold. The Arkansas Parole Board had recommended that Hutchinson grant McGehee clemency.
The judge said McGehee was entitled to a 30-day comment period before Hutchinson made his decision.
Arkansas put four inmates to death in April. Hutchinson earlier Friday set another execution for November.
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10 a.m.
Arkansas’ governor has set a November execution date for a convicted killer, marking the first scheduled date since the state put four men to death in April.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s office said Friday that the governor scheduled a Nov. 9 execution date for Jack Greene, who was convicted of killing Sidney Jethro Burnett in 1991 after Burnett and his wife accused Greene of arson. Rutledge said Greene has exhausted his appeals and there’s no stay of execution in place.
Arkansas executed four prisoners in April but had intended to put eight men to death. The state scheduled the executions to occur before its supply of one of its lethal injection drugs expired.
The state announced last week it had a new supply of the drug. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge asked Hutchinson to schedule Greene’s execution.
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