Arkansas was set to execute inmate Jack Greene for murdering Sidney Burnett in 1991. In a 5-2 ruling, the Arkansas Supreme Court issued an emergency stay of execution for Greene with no written order or explanation as to why they allowed the stay.  Stay of execution “prevents the legal process of execution or legal enforcement.” Greene’s attorneys allege that his compulsive behavior and ramblings of a conspiracy theories against him are proof that he is delusional. They argue that executing Greene would be unconstitutional due to his mental illness.

In addition, the state attorney general’s office court papers responded to Greene’s request saying the killer was reiterating old claims, and ‘…come close to describing the ‘macabre horror’ that Jack Greene inflicted on Sidney Burnett,” the filing expressed.

In April of this year, Arkansas had planned to execute eight death row inmates in eleven days, due to one of their drugs expiring. It was the first executions in 12 years. The act of putting inmates to death has become less common, and Arkansas’ schedule had caused unease in numerous states and brought the debate over capital punishment back to light. Arkansas executed four inmates in total during April.

Their attorneys fighting against the “execution by assembly line” brought up a double execution in Oklahoma that led to catastrophe. It’s said that the 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett had seen him groaning and twitching for 43 minutes. In an investigation, it was revealed that the execution team had been under “such huge stress from the plan to kill two men in one night that they had made mistakes.” The botched execution introduced a new rule that “executions had to be at least seven days apart.”