Arkansas carries out first double execution in US since 2000

Two inmates were given lethal injections about three hours apart as Arkansas completed the first double execution in the US since 2000.

Rapist and murderer Jack Jones was executed on schedule at about 7pm local time and pronounced dead 20 minutes later.

But lawyers for the second man, Marcel Williams, convinced a judge to briefly delay his injection over concerns about how the first was carried out.

They claimed Jones gasped for air and that officials spent 45 minutes trying to place an IV line in his neck before relocating it.

The state’s attorney general denied the claims.

In an emergency filing, Williams’ lawyers argued that he could face a “torturous” death because of his size.

But Williams, who weighed 400 pounds, was administered with the lethal injection and pronounced dead just over three hours after his fellow inmate.

A witness said Jones moved his lips briefly after the was injected with the drug midazolam.

His chest stopped moving two minutes after they checked for consciousness, and he was pronounced dead at 7.20pm.

Initially, Governor Asa Hutchinson scheduled four double executions over an 11-day period in April.

The state said the executions needed to be carried out before its supply of one lethal injection drug expires on April 30.

Besides the two executions on Monday, Arkansas put to death one other inmate last week and has a final one scheduled for Thursday. Four others have been blocked.

Before last week, Arkansas had not had an execution since 2005 or a double execution since 1999.

Jones was sent to death row for the 1995 rape and killing of Mary Phillips.

He was also convicted of attempting to kill Ms Phillips' 11-year-old daughter and was convicted in another rape and killing in Florida.

Williams was sentenced to death for the 1994 rape and killing of 22-year-old Stacy Errickson, whom he kidnapped from a petrol station in central Arkansas.

The authorities said Williams abducted and raped two other women in the days before he was arrested over Ms Errickson's death.

Williams admitted responsibility to the state Parole Board last month, saying: "I wish I could take it back, but I can't."

In a letter earlier this month, Jones said he was ready to be killed by the state. He used a wheelchair and he had a leg amputated in prison because of diabetes.

The letter, which his lawyer read aloud at his clemency hearing, went on to say: "I shall not ask to be forgiven, for I haven't the right."

Both men were served last meals on Monday afternoon, Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Solomon Graves said.