Minutes before Don Davis was to be executed last month, word came from the U.S. Supreme Court not to proceed. For now, Davis is still alive, a convicted murderer among the survivors of Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson's April rush to execute eight death-row inmates before state's supply of midazolam expired and could no longer be considered safe to use in bringing about death.
The execution, along with that of inmate Bruce Ward, was stayed based on a legal question over what sort of mental-health assistance indigent defendants should receive. Davis was sentenced to death after evaluation at a state hospital and denied a mental-health expert to assist in his defense. His case raised the same question that is currently before the Supreme Court in McWilliams v. Dunn.
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