Arkansas completes executes tonight; plans 2nd lethal injection later tonight

VARNER, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas executed inmate Jack Jones tonight and prepared for another lethal injection in what would be the nation's first double-execution since 2000.

Jones was pronounced dead at 7:20 p.m., 14 minutes after the procedure began at the state's Cummins Unit in southeast Arkansas.

Barring any last-minute stays, inmate Marcel Williams will be executed later tonight.

Jones was sent to death row for the 1995 rape and killing of Mary Phillips. He was also convicted of attempting to kill Phillips' 11-year-old daughter and was convicted in another rape and killing in Florida.

Jones said earlier this month he was ready for execution. Jones used a wheelchair and he'd had a leg amputated in prison because of diabetes.

The state conducted its first execution last week after a nearly 12-year hiatus. Initially, Gov. Asa Hutchinson scheduled four double executions over an 11-day period this month. The eight executions would have been the most by a state in such a compressed period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The state said the executions needed to be carried out before its supply of one lethal injection drug expires April 30.

The first three executions were canceled because of court decisions, then inmate Ledell Lee was executed last week.