Sanders, like dad, faces death penalty role

Alaw that took effect Aug. 5 will allow Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to start setting execution dates for the men on Arkansas’ Death Row. She will have a unique perspective on the death penalty, considering her father carried out the task 16 times.

Act 302 by Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage, allows the state to execute prisoners using nitrogen gas, depriving their cells of oxygen. Arkansas is the fifth state to legalize that method.

The change came after it became too difficult for the state to obtain the drugs used in lethal injection. The drug makers do not want their products used in carrying out the death penalty, so Arkansas has not executed anyone since 2017.

Throughout history, 510 Arkansans have been executed by the state government, federal government or the military, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The first occurred in 1820.

Today, 27 men await execution. Ten filed a lawsuit Aug. 5 seeking to block the law. Among their arguments is that they were sentenced to death by lethal injection, not nitrogen gas. If they win their case, or obtain a preliminary injunction, Sanders won’t have to set any dates soon, if ever.

Regardless, Sanders told the Associated Press in April that she won’t be in a hurry to set dates.

“I think anybody that is rushing into a decision like that is not the one making the decision and doesn’t understand the severity and the responsibility that comes with it,” she said. “I’m certainly not rushing to take action on that. We will be very thoughtful and deliberative as we go through the process.”

Sanders’ father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, presided over the executions of 16 individuals. For him, it was an anguishing process. Looking back to January 1997, the state executed three men in one night. Two of them were Paul Ruiz and Earl Van Denton. They had escaped from an Oklahoma prison, where Van Denton was serving a life sentence for murder and Ruiz was serving one for armed robbery. As detailed by the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, they kidnapped and shot a town marshal and two U.S. Army Corps of Engineer rangers in Arkansas. The town marshal and one of the rangers died. Ruiz and Van Denton are believed to have killed four other men in Oklahoma and Louisiana. The other, Kirt Wainwright, was convicted in the murder of a convenience store clerk during a robbery.

A few weeks before the execution, I asked Huckabee at a press conference how he felt about being the last remaining person who could prevent the deaths of three people by granting clemency, and choosing not to do so. He talked about a previous execution over which he had presided. As he spoke, his face turned red, his voice cracked and his eyes teared up.

“There’s never a night in a person’s life that’s more Godawful- gut-wrenching than the night you personally have the responsibility to stop a man’s death, or not,” he said. “Anybody who feels good about it is a very sick person.”

I suspect Huckabee’s daughter has a similar outlook. She told the Associated Press that his experiences gave her a perspective on the responsibility.

“Anytime you are the person sitting on the chair whose name goes on the line, it makes the decision a lot different, whether it’s on this or anything else you do as governor,” she said.

Other recent governors have had their own perspectives on the death penalty. Sanders’ predecessor, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, an attorney, believed his job was to administer the law and carry out the process. Judges and juries had already heard the case and rendered their decisions. In 2017, he ordered eight men executed over an 11-day period before the state’s drug supply expired. The state ultimately carried out four of those executions.

Hutchinson’s predecessor, Gov. Mike Beebe, scheduled executions, but they were never carried out. He said he would sign a bill outlawing the death penalty if legislators would send him one. The Associated Press quoted him saying, “It is an agonizing process, whether you’re for the death penalty or against the death penalty. Everybody can claim they’re for it until you’re actually the person who’s got to sign it.”

Going back a few years, Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, a death penalty opponent, halted all executions in 1967. With just weeks left in office, he commuted to life in prison the sentences of all 15 condemned inmates on Dec. 29, 1970. Two days later on New Year’s Eve, he and son Win visited them in prison.

Don’t expect Gov. Sanders to grant clemencies to all the state’s death row inmates. But also don’t expect her to be in a hurry to carry out the responsibility. Like her father, she might have some gut-wrenching nights in her future.

••• Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 21 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@ mac.com.