Witness to killer's end: Remorse wasn't in him

Ledell Lee
Ledell Lee

The departing silence of convicted killer Ledell Lee came as no surprise to the woman who sought the death sentence against him more than two decades ago.

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Arkansas Department of Correction via AP

Marcel Williams

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Arkansas Department of Correction via AP

Jack Jones Jr.

The prosecuting attorney in his 1995 capital-murder trial, Holly Lodge Meyer, was one of a dozen Arkansans who witnessed Lee's execution Thursday night on behalf of the state. Others included a city attorney, a deputy U.S. marshal, a sheriff and two lawyers who tried diligently to have the execution called off.

Arkansas executions


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The state Department of Correction released the list of witnesses Friday evening, less than 24 hours after Lee died at 11:56 p.m. Thursday at the Cummins Unit. They did not hear a final statement from the execution chamber from Lee, who chose not to make one even though he was asked twice to do so.

[📄 DOCUMENTS: Click here to read the list of witnesses, a log of Lee's final hours and more]

Lee, 51, was put to death for killing Debra Reese in her Jacksonville home in 1993. She was bludgeoned to death, and Lee was connected to the crime through several eyewitnesses and a shoe print.

Lee had since maintained his innocence, though he was tied to several other rapes and one slaying in the area. The U.S. Supreme Court removed a final stay on his execution less than an hour before midnight.

Taking a seat several yards from the gurney where Lee died was a "sobering and serious" experience, Lodge Meyer said Friday. She said the execution, completed in 12 minutes, "went smooth."

But she also expressed frustration at the court-imposed delay -- after years of legal battles -- which lasted until the final hour.

In addition to the citizen witnesses, six members of Reese's family were at the prison Thursday night, though they were said to have watched by closed-circuit video.

Asked why she volunteered for the role, Lodge Meyer said Friday that she believed she knew the convicted killer's evil "more intimately" than anyone else, a belief that she said was perpetuated by Lee's silence Thursday.

"I thought that was consistent with his personality ... which I have found, through hours spent in the courtroom, is cold and calculating," Lodge Meyer said.

"I certainly didn't expect any contrition on his part."

Before he died, Lee eschewed a personalized final meal, opting instead to receive Holy Communion at 2:44 p.m., according to a revised account of his final day released Friday by the prison.

The account said Lee was given the regular dinner tray served that night to Cummins prisoners, of which he drank fruit punch and ate four slices of bread, cinnamon rolls, stewed tomatoes, sweet rice, pinto beans and two pieces of fried chicken.

Additional details about his last day were offered by his attorney, Lee Short, in a Facebook post.

After making final calls to family members, Short said, Lee "frantically began dividing his belongings," which included saltines and cups, as well as chips that he gave to Stacey Johnson, a fellow condemned inmate whose planned Thursday execution was called off earlier in the day.

That evening, Short said, he and Lee watched the news on TV reporting that several stays had been put in place by federal courts. Afterward, they watched sitcoms and "laughed all the way through" but "things changed" around 11:20, Short wrote.

Short and Jeff Rosenzweig, Johnson's attorney, watched the execution as it was carried out a little more than a half-hour later.

Reached Friday, Lee's younger brother, Howard Young, said of the condemned's family: "We're strong. We're relying on each other."

Rosenzweig, a prolific attorney of capital cases and a witness to five previous executions, said Thursday's procedure "appeared to be without incident," though he noted he had no medical training.

Rosenzweig said he still had concerns about the drugs used in Arkansas' executions, three more of which are scheduled next week, including two more of his clients.

Marcel Williams and Jack Jones Jr. are to be put to death Monday. The state also plans to execute Kenneth Williams on Thursday.

Lawyers -- both for the inmates and the state -- are preparing for a renewed set of legal challenges. The state originally scheduled eight inmates to die this month in an 11-day schedule that is now half over.

The first two inmates, Bruce Earl Ward and Don Davis, were successful in their challenges based on mental-health concerns. The second pair, Lee and Johnson, claimed innocence.

Jones and Williams have lodged breakaway appeals that their unique health conditions put them at a heightened risk of suffering from the use of one of the three lethal-injection drugs.

Nine death-row prisoners challenged Arkansas' use of midazolam for sedation -- before doses of a paralyzing drug and heart-stopping potassium chloride -- by arguing that it may not work as intended, putting them at risk of significant pain.

The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately rejected that appeal. The inmates -- minus one not scheduled for execution -- now have several individual claims filed across state and federal courts.

Jones, a diabetic with hypertension, and Williams, who weighs about 400 pounds, challenged the use of midazolam in filings before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker.

Baker declined to accept either claim in a pair of rulings issued late Friday, though attorneys said they would appeal the decision.

As of Friday, there are no stays in place to prevent the state from executing either Jones or Williams.

Both men have admitted their guilt. Jones, who did not attend his clemency hearing before the state Parole Board, has indicated that he wants to be executed.

"There's no way in hell I would spend another day or 20 years in this rat hole," he said in a letter read by Rosenzweig at Jones' April 7 hearing.

Rosenzweig said Friday that Jones nonetheless wants the judge to block the state from using its current execution method. They are considering whether to file additional appeals.

"Yes, if they are using the midazolam protocol that is currently the one in force," Rosenzweig said. "Beyond that, we will find out."

A Section on 04/22/2017

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