A death-row inmate, scheduled to be executed in November, has requested executive clemency, a state Parole Board official said Thursday.
Stacey Johnson, 45, filed the request Wednesday. Granting the request can mean either total forgiveness for the crime or a reduction of the criminal penalty, said Parole Board administrator Solomon Graves.
Johnson and Terrick Nooner, 44, are scheduled to die by lethal injection Nov. 3. Nooner had not requested clemency as of late Thursday, but has until noon Monday to do so, Graves said.
The Parole Board will hold a clemency hearing with Johnson at the Arkansas Department of Correction's Varner unit in Gould at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 15. The second part of the hearing -- which includes the state's objection to the clemency as well as victim-impact testimony -- will be at 1 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Parole Board's office in Little Rock.
The Parole Board will consider the application and the testimony, then make a recommendation to Gov. Asa Hutchinson to either grant the clemency or deny it. The governor is not obligated to follow the board's decision.
Death-row inmates Bruce Ward, 58, and Don Davis, 52 -- who are set to die by lethal injection Oct. 21 -- did not submit clemency requests by the Sept. 21 deadline, Graves said.
Besides Johnson, Nooner, Ward and Davis, inmates Marcel Williams and Jack Jones Jr. are scheduled to be executed Dec. 14 and Jason McGehee and Kenneth Williams are scheduled to die Jan. 14. All eight have exhausted all standard appeals. Williams and Jones have until Nov. 3 to request clemency and McGehee and Williams have until Dec. 4 to request it.
Last week, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined Ward's request for a review of his death-sentence case.
A lawsuit filed in June in Pulaski County Circuit Court by all eight men asking the prison system to disclose the source of its execution drugs is pending. Jeff Rosenzweig, an attorney for all eight men, has said that he will ask the court to delay the executions.
State Desk on 09/25/2015