Strapped to a gurney with needles in his arms, condemned killer Kirt Wainwright read a poem he wrote committing his soul to God, then chuckled as lethal chemicals began pumping into his body.
Wainwright, the last of three men put to death Wednesday night, had the needles in his arms for 40 minutes while the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether to halt his execution.The triple execution was the second in the nation since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The first also occurred in Arkansas, in 1994. In both cases, prison officials said three were put to death on the same night to reduce overtime costs and stress on prison employees.
Besides the 30-year-old Wainwright, who was condemned for the 1988 slaying of a small-town convenience store worker, the state also executed two other men convicted of the 1977 murders of a town marshal and park ranger.
After the high court rejected his appeal, Wainwright recited a two-minute poem he had written and memorized.
"If need be, I'm ready to die. Because with me, death, I know one thing, another life it must bring," he said. "And as sure as the sun hangs high in the sky, to a higher place my soul must fly . . . now send me to my God."'
Neither Earl Van Denton nor Paul Ruiz offered any final words.
Denton, 47, went first because his prisoner identification number was the lowest and was pronounced dead at 7:09 p.m. Ruiz, 49, was pronounced dead 51 minutes later. Wainwright died at 9:50 p.m.
Wainwright's execution was delayed while Supreme Court justices considered an appeal saying Gov. Mike Huckabee shouldn't have decided his plea for clemency because the governor knew Wainwright's victims.
Denton and Ruiz had been on Arkansas' death row longer than any other inmates - since 1978. Their convictions and sentences had been reversed and reinstated three times.
The two men escaped in 1977 from an Oklahoma prison and went on a two-week crime spree, during which they were suspected of killing seven people in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. They were eventually convicted of killing Magazine town marshal Marvin Richie and Army Engineers park ranger Opal James of Havana.