TO: ALL MEDIA

FROM: THE 28 ELECTED ARKANSAS PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS

DATE: APRIL 20, 2017

RE: DEATH PENALTY STATEMENT

Contact: Bob McMahan, Prosecutor Coordinator (501)-680-1929

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The delay in the execution of murderers on death row is justice denied for victims families, juries across Arkansas,
and our communities. The 28 elected Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys strongly support the work of Governor Asa
Hutchinson, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, and their respective offices in seeking to carry out lawful executions.
The work of carrying out the executions of heinous murderers in Arkansas is just, moral, and long overdue. We
hope the people of Arkansas will join us in supporting Governor Hutchinson and Attorney General Rutledge. We
believe the will of the people of Arkansas, expressed through juries in unanimous verdicts and upheld through
decades of appeals, should be respected. The families of the victims of these vile killers deserve the finality of law.
Unfortunately, recent judicial decisions have denied the victims families the closure they deserve. It is time for
justice to finally be done.

Some have deliberately misrepresented these cases so as to insinuate that there is some question about guilt or
due process. There is none. All of the men recently scheduled for execution are unquestionably guilty. Their
convictions have been scrutinized through decades of appeals. Among these death row inmates are serial killers
and serial rapists. Through the manipulation of the judicial system, these men continue to torment the victims
families in seeking, by any means, to avoid their just punishment.

It has been said that it is not the severity of punishment that deters crime, but the certainty of it. Currently, we
have neither. Arkansas juries thoughtfully examined the evidence in each of these cases and imposed a just
punishment. Decades of appeals have confirmed the wisdom and justice of those sentences. The victims families
were promised the finality of justice by our judicial system. It is time for Arkansas to uphold that commitment.

President Bryan Chesshir Vice-President Blake Batson Secretary-Treasurer Kyle Hunter

Board Members Scott Ellington, Cody Hiland, Ken Casady, and Dan Shue
Executive Director Bob McMahan