Arkansas carries out first double execution in U.S. since 2000

A death chamber. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

On Monday, Arkansas put to death two prisoners, Marcel Williams and Jack Jones, the first time a state has carried out a double execution in 17 years.

Jones, convicted of raping and murdering Mary Phillips in 1995, was put to death shortly after 7 p.m., and Williams' attorneys then asked for a stay, saying that Williams' obesity would make it too difficult for an IV to be placed and questioning if Jones' execution went according to plan. A judge temporarily blocked Williams' execution, but lifted the stay an hour later.

Williams was pronounced dead at 10:33 p.m., 17 minutes after the procedure began. He was convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of Stacy Errickson, a 22-year-old woman he kidnapped from a gas station. Arkansas is ramping up its executions, scheduling eight over 11 days, because its supply of one lethal injection drug will expire at the end of the month. At least three of the eight executions have been stayed by court order.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.