LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Bruce Ward, who held the record as the longest-serving death row inmate in Arkansas, has passed away, according to the state’s Department of Corrections. He was 68 years old.
Ward was declared dead on Tuesday due to natural causes. He had been located at the Varner SuperMax unit in Gould, roughly 67 miles south of Little Rock, while awaiting execution.
Out of respect for confidentiality rules, the department refused to share further details about Ward’s health condition or any specifics about the nature of his death.
Incarcerated for 35 years, Ward was convicted of the 1989 murder of Rebecca Doss. Doss had been found strangled in the men’s restroom of a Little Rock convenience store where she worked. With Ward’s passing, 24 inmates remain on death row in Arkansas.
In 2017, Ward was among eight inmates scheduled for execution during a two-week period as the state’s supply of a particular lethal injection drug neared expiration. Legal interventions prevented Ward’s execution, as well as three others, though four inmates were executed before the drugs ran out.
The state’s stockpile of all three drugs used for lethal injections has since expired, and Arkansas has faced challenges acquiring new supplies since manufacturers have expressed their opposition to their products being used for execution purposes.
Last month, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders approved new legislation sanctioning the use of nitrogen gas for executions. This law makes Arkansas the fifth state to permit nitrogen gas as a method, and its advocates argue it will enable the state to resume capital punishments.
This legislation, however, will not be implemented until later this year, and state officials have not disclosed any timelines for resuming executions.
Don Davis now becomes Arkansas’ longest-serving death row inmate since being sentenced in 1992 for murdering a woman in northwest Arkansas after breaking into her home. Like Ward, Davis was one of the inmates whose execution was halted in 2017. He was recently hospitalized following a suicide attempt.
Across the United States, there are approximately 2,100 individuals on death row. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, over half have waited more than 18 years for their executions.