2010 Arkansas Code
Title 16 - Practice, Procedure, And Courts
Subtitle 6 - Criminal Procedure Generally
Chapter 90 - Judgment And Sentence Generally
Subchapter 5 - Execution of Sentence -- Death Penalty
§ 16-90-502 - Conduct of execution.

16-90-502. Conduct of execution.

(a) Each execution shall be conducted by the Director of the Department of Correction or some assistant or assistants designated by him or her.

(b) The punishment of death must be carried out in the manner prescribed at 5-4-617 in every case.

(c) The director or the assistants appointed by him or her shall proceed unless a suspension of execution is ordered, at the time named in the sentence, to cause the death of the felon under sentence of death in the manner prescribed at 5-4-617.

(d) (1) No execution of any person convicted in this state of a capital offense shall be public, but shall be private.

(2) At the execution there shall be present the director or an assistant, the Department of Correction official in charge of medical services or his or her designee, and a number of respectable citizens numbering not fewer than six (6) nor more than twelve (12) whose presence is necessary to verify that the execution was conducted in the manner required by law. Counsel for the person being executed and the spiritual adviser to the person being executed may be present. Other persons designated by the director may be present, but the maximum number of persons at the execution shall not exceed thirty (30).

(3) (A) During the execution there shall be a closed-circuit audiovisual monitor placed in a location chosen by the director, and any close relatives of the deceased victim or any surviving innocent victims who desire to view the execution may be present. In no case shall the number of viewers exceed five (5) per execution. No audio or video recording shall be made of the execution.

(B) "Close relatives of the victim" means the following persons in relation to the victim for whose death an inmate is sentenced to death:

(i) The spouse of the victim at the time of the victim's death;

(ii) The parents or stepparents of the victim;

(iii) The adult brothers, sisters, children, or stepchildren of the victim; or

(iv) Any other adult relative with a close relationship to the victim.

(C) "Surviving innocent victims" means any person innocently present during the commission of the capital offence who sustains an injury, either physical or emotional, and such injury results in a separate conviction for a lesser offense which arises out of the same course of conduct.