In an op-ed, best-selling author and Arkansas native John Grisham, called the state’s plan to execute seven death-row inmates over a span of 11 days a “spectacular train wreck.”
The piece, published Monday by USA Today, also details the writer’s opposition to executing the prisoners based on the fact that one of the three drugs the state plans to use is soon expiring.
“Hutchinson should accept last week’s judicial ruling and abandon this whole misguided schedule,” Grisham wrote. “It undermines the gravity of our legal process and the death penalty itself by denying the [inmates] due process, full access to their lawyers and established clemency proceedings.”
EXECUTIONS: In-depth look at 4 men put to death in April + 3 others whose executions were stayed
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That ruling blocked the execution of an eighth inmate who was scheduled to die later this month based on a 30-day window for clemency hearings.
“Even if Arkansas pulls it off, justice will lose,” Grisham, who is a former attorney, concluded.