Arkansas executes fourth inmate in eight days

Arkansas executed inmate Kenneth Williams, 38, Thursday night, the fourth and final lethal injection in eight days before the state’s supply of one of the drugs expires. Williams was sentenced to death for killing a former deputy warden, Cecil Boren, after he escaped from prison in 1999. He was in prison for the 1998 murder of Dominique Hurd, a college cheerleader. While in prison he confessed to killing another person in 1998. Witnesses said Williams’ body convulsed about three minutes into the execution, prompting his attorney to demand an investigation. A spokesman for Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the movements were “an involuntary muscular reaction,” a common side effect from the first of the three drugs administered. Arkansas had scheduled eight executions over an 11-day period, but courts issued stays for four of the inmates.