Arkansas Executes Jack Jones As Part Of First U.S. Double Execution In 17 Years

Source: Huffington Post

04/24/2017 08:33 pm ET

The executions are part of the state’s unprecedented plan to kill 8 men in 11 days.
 
By Kim Bellware

 
Arkansas has executed the first of two men scheduled to die in the first U.S. double execution since 2000. 

Jack Jones Jr., 52, was the first prisoner put to death Monday night. Jones was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 7:20 p.m. CDT at the Arkansas Department of Corrections’ Cummins Unit outside of Little Rock.

Lawyers for Jones petitioned all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court but were ultimately denied both a stay of execution and a petition to have the high court hear his case. His lawyers argued that Jones’ previous attorneys failed to present mitigating evidence that could have spared him a death sentence and said evidence of mental health issues Jones suffered should have been presented at trial. 

Jones had been on death row for 22 years after he was convicted of the 1995 rape and murder of 34-year-old bookkeeper Mary Phillips in Bald Knob, Arkansas. 




Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/arkansas-double-execution_us_58fe8912e4b06b9cb919820e?section=us_politics