LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Bruce Earl Ward, the longest-serving inmate on death row in Arkansas, died on April 1 from natural causes, prison officials said. He was 68.
According to the state Department of Corrections, Ward was pronounced dead at the Varner SuperMax unit in Gould. He had been on death row since October 1990, after he was found guilty of the strangulation death of Rebecca Lynn Doss, 18, a convenience store clerk in Little Rock.
On Aug. 11, 1989, a Little Rock police sergeant visited the Jackpot convenience store and noticed the store clerk was not in her usual work station.
After checking several locations, the officer saw Ward walking from the restrooms toward a motorcycle. The officer then discovered Doss’ body lying on the floor of the men’s restroom.
Arkansas death row inmate Bruce Ward dies in prison https://t.co/l1CkB3xVHd
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Ward was later arrested and convicted of murder.
Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson had set dates for eight inmates -- including Ward -- to be put to death during a two-week period in 2017 before its supply of lethal injection drugs expired.
Ward avoided capital punishment with three others when the Arkansas Supreme Court granted a request to stay the executions. The state’s highest court struck down a law giving the state’s prison director authority to determine whether an inmate is mentally competent to be executed.
Ward’s execution had been scheduled for April 17, 2017.
The other four inmates tabbed by Hutchinson were put to death.
Ward’s death means that the longest-serving inmate on Arkansas’ death is Don Davis. He was sentenced in 1992 for killing a woman after breaking into her home.
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