Arkansas AG files appeal in Williams execution case (UALR Public Radio) - The state attorney general's office filed an appeal Tuesday with the Arkansas Supreme Court of a judge's decision that bars prison officials from executing convicted killer Frank Williams Jr.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ruled last week in a lawsuit brought by Williams that new lethal-injection procedures of the Arkansas Department of Correction cannot be implemented without public review, in accordance with the Arkansas Administrative Procedure Act.

Williams, 42, who was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1992 slaying of Lafayette County farmer Clyde Spence, is scheduled to die Sept. 9. Williams worked for Spence but was fired after Spence said Williams broke a tractor.

In the appeal, Assistant Attorney General C. Joseph Cordi Jr. asked that the court expedite its decision. He argued that state law authorizes the prison director to determine the lethal-injection protocol and that the new procedure does not amount to a rule subject to public review under the act.

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