Condemned Arkansas prisoner Bruce Earl Ward asked the state's top justices Monday to reimpose a long-running stay of execution on his behalf while he and a fellow death row inmate prepare an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ward was one of eight men scheduled for lethal injection in April 2017, before his execution was called off by the Arkansas Supreme Court over his claims that he lacked the mental competence to be put to death.
The Arkansas high court's stay of execution -- which was put in place while the court waited to see the outcome of a similar mental competence case before the U.S. justices last spring -- remained in place until last week, after the Arkansas Supreme Court rejected Ward's claims.
On Monday, Ward filed a motion asking the court to reinstate the stay. Another death row inmate, Don Davis, filed a similar motion last week.
Unlike Davis, Ward is not under the immediate threat of having his execution scheduled anew, as he has other claims circulating through the courts.
The claim at the center of the case that his lawyers want to go to the U.S. Supreme Court is that both Ward and Davis were denied the assistance of an independent mental health examiner during the sentencing phases of their original trials.
Both men are convicted killers who have spent more than two decades on death row.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned the death sentence of an Alabama man after ruling that he had been denied the right to a "competent psychiatrist who will conduct an appropriate examination and assist in evaluation, preparation, and presentation of the defense." The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that neither Davis nor Ward -- who were evaluated at the State Hospital in Little Rock -- were similarly deprived of their rights.
Federal public defenders who are assisting Ward and Davis have said they are likely to file an appeal to the U.S. justices, though they have yet to do so.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge was reviewing the motion Monday, a spokesman said.
In addition to claims about his mental competency at the time of his sentencing, Ward has a pending case before the Arkansas Supreme Court over his current mental fitness for execution. Until that case is resolved, Ward has an ongoing stay of execution.
For Davis to be spared from having a new execution date set, the justices will have to reimpose its earlier stay. If the justices decline to do so, it could prompt the attorney general's office to begin the series of events that lead up to an execution.
Metro on 03/27/2018