US state holds execution as SC reviews case

The state of Arkansas has temporarily put an execution on hold as the US Supreme Court was hearing the convict's last minute appeals, the media reported.

Kenneth Williams, 38, was scheduled to be executed on Thursday night at the Cummins Unit, a state prison southwest of Pine Bluff, the same facility where two convicts were killed by the lethal injection on Monday night and another criminal on April 21.

If Williams' final court appeals fail, he would be the fourth Arkansas prisoner to be executed in seven days - a compressed timeline precipitated by a scarcity of fresh lethal-injection drugs as states struggle with suppliers that don't want their products used in executions, reports CNN.

Williams was initially sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of Dominique Hurd, a University of Arkansas cheerleader.

But a month after his sentence, he escaped from the Cummins prison in October 1999.

Authorities said Williams the went to former deputy prison warden Cecil Boren's home nearby, confiscated his guns and shot him before taking off with his vehicle.

Police said he drove to Missouri, where he wrecked with another vehicle as a police officer chased him, CNN reported.

The wreck killed the other driver, Michael Greenwood.

Williams was convicted of Boren's death and sentenced to execution in 2000.

--IANS

ksk