With death of condemned inmate this week Arkansas Death Row not stands at 24 men awaiting their fate

As of June 2025, Arkansas’s death row houses 24 inmates, all men, convicted of capital murder and awaiting execution at the Varner SuperMax Unit in Gould, about 67 miles south of Little Rock.

The state’s death row population reflects a decline following the natural death of Bruce Earl Ward in April 2025. Ward, originally sentenced in 1990 for the murder of 18-year-old Rebecca Doss, had his execution halted in 2017 due to legal challenges.

On June 6, 2025, another death row inmate, Latavious Johnson, died at Varner SuperMax. Johnson, 43, had been serving a life sentence for the 2000 murder of his father, Johnnie Johnson, before receiving a death sentence for the 2012 murder of correctional officer Barbara Ester2. The Arkansas Department of Corrections has not disclosed the cause of his death.

Among the current inmates, Don W. Davis, sentenced in 1992 for a murder in Benton County, now holds the status of the longest-serving prisoner following Ward’s death. The most recent addition, Scotty R. Gardner, was sentenced in 2018 for a murder in Faulkner County.

Arkansas has not carried out an execution since 2017, when four inmates were executed over an 11-day period before the state’s supply of lethal injection drugs expired. Since then, the state has struggled to resume executions, as pharmaceutical companies have increasingly refused to sell lethal injection drugs to correctional facilities.

In an attempt to restart executions, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation in March 2025 authorizing nitrogen gas as an alternative execution method. Arkansas thus became the fifth state to adopt this controversial approach. Despite the law’s passage, no executions have been scheduled using nitrogen gas yet.

The adoption of nitrogen hypoxia has stirred intense debate. Anti-death penalty advocate Jeff Hood, who witnessed the first nitrogen gas execution in the U.S., called the method “horrific”, pointing to the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama as evidence of its cruelty. Supporters argue that it provides a practical alternative to lethal injection and allows the state to move forward with executions.

Among the 24 inmates currently on death row, 10 have exhausted their appeals, according to Jeff LeMaster, Communications Director for Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office. This group includes long-serving inmates such as Don W. Davis and Jack G. Greene, both awaiting execution without further legal recourse.

Arkansas’s death row population is part of roughly 2,100 inmates awaiting execution across the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. More than half of these prisoners have been on death row for over 18 years, reflecting widespread delays due to legal appeals, drug shortages, and shifting execution policies.

As Arkansas navigates new execution protocols, public opinion remains divided. Whether the shift to nitrogen gas will lead to resumed executions or face additional legal challenges remains uncertain.

For now, the 24 men on death row wait in limbo, their fates tied to ongoing legal, political, and ethical debates over the future of capital punishment in Arkansas.