Arkansas executes two prisoners in one night

The southern state of Arkansas executed two inmates late Monday, the first double execution in the United States in 17 years, according to the Arkansas attorney general.

Death-row inmates Jack Jones, left, and Marcel Williams. (AAP) Source: Arkansas Department of Correction

Leslie Rutledge said that Jack Jones and Marcel Williams, both sentenced to death in the 1990s, were executed by lethal injection after higher courts rejected their final legal appeals.

Jones and Williams had argued their obesity could expose them to unconstitutional pain and suffering if their death sentences included the sedative midazolam, one of three drugs the state uses for lethal injections.

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 that he was ready for execution. Jones used a wheelchair and he'd had a leg amputated in prison because of complications related to diabetes.

Arkansas had scheduled eight executions over an 11-day period before the end of April, when its supply of one lethal injection drug expires. One inmate was put to death last week, though the first three executions were cancelled because of court rulings.

Jones delivered about a two-minute final statement, ending with, "I'm sorry."

He told Phillips' daughter, Lacy, who was injured during the attack, that he hoped that "over time you can learn who I really am and I am not a monster."

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