© 2024 KUAF
NPR Affiliate since 1985
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Legal Challenge Filed To Stop Jones Execution Fails Supreme Court Muster

Arkansas Public Media | By Sarah Whites-Koditschek,
Sarah Whites-Koditschek, Bobby Ampezzan
Published April 23, 2017 at 2:41 PM CDT
Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig
Bobby Ampezzan
/
Arkansas Public Media
Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig

A legal challenge to Monday's planned execution of Jack Jones was rejected by the state Supreme Court.

In an Arkansas Public Media story yesterday reported Jack Jones’ attorney Jeff Rosenzweig objected to the jury in Jones' sentencing. Specifically, they filled out paperwork to show contradictory findings about whether there were valid reasons, or mitigating factors, to avoid a death penalty sentence.

His attorney Jeff Rosenzweig argued precedent in Arkansas is to grant re-sentencing when there’s been such an error.

"There is a chain of a number of cases, I think seven altogether. It’s win, win, win, Jones loses, win, win, win, and we think that’s improper,” he said.

He says previous challenges focused on Jones’s health issues. Jones an amputee and a diabetic, and Rosenzweig says Jones' doctor is worried the state's lethal injection drug protocol might not be effective on him because of his medication regime.

Arkansas is set to carry out two sentences Monday for Jones and Marcell Williams.

This story is produced by Arkansas Public Media. What's that? APM is nonprofit journalism project for all of Arkansas and a collaboration among public media in the state. We're funded in part through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with the support of partner stations KUAR, KUAF, KASU and KTXK. And, we hope, from you! You can learn more and support Arkansas Public Media’s reporting at arkansaspublicmedia.org. Arkansas Public Media is Natural State news with context.

Copyright 2017 Arkansas Public Media
Tags
Ozarks at Large Stories Arkansas Public Media
Sarah Whites-Koditschek
Sarah Whites-Koditschek is a Little Rock-based reporter for Arkansas Public Media covering education, healthcare, state politics, and criminal justice issues. Formerly she worked as a reporter and producer for WHYY in Philadelphia, and was an intern and editorial assistant for Morning Edition at National Public Radio in Los Angeles and Washington D.C.
See stories by Sarah Whites-Koditschek
Sarah Whites-Koditschek
Sarah Whites-Koditschek is a reporter and anchor for KUAR 89.1.
Bobby Ampezzan
Bobby Ampezzan is a native of Detroit who holds degrees from Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) and the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). He's written for The Guardian newspaper and Oxford American magazine and was a longtime staff writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The best dimestore nugget he's lately discovered comes from James Altucher's Choose Yourself (actually, the Times' profile on Altucher, which quotes the book): "I lose at least 20 percent of my intelligence when I am resentful." Meanwhile, his faith in public radio and television stems from the unifying philosophy that not everything be serious, but curiosity should follow every thing, and that we be serious about curiosity.
Related Content