Arkansas carried out the first double execution in almost 20 years on Monday night, after numerous legal challenges against the process failed. Jack Harold Jones and Marcel Williams were both administered the controversial drug sedative midazolam, which critics argue causes botched executions.

The Guardian reporter Ed Pilkington joined Amy Goodman and Juan González on Democracy Now! to discuss the details of Monday’s double execution, including the disturbing level of secrecy surrounding state executions.

“They went to extraordinary lengths to make our job difficult as reporters,” Pilkington says. “The whole process has like been a battle between the media, which is the eyes and ears of the public, and the prison service, that, after all, is doing the most serious thing that any state can do, and that is to kill one of its own citizens.”

Watch the full interview in the video above.

—Posted by Emma Niles

 Your support is crucial…

With an uncertain future and a new administration casting doubt on press freedoms, the danger is clear: The truth is at risk.

Now is the time to give. Your tax-deductible support allows us to dig deeper, delivering fearless investigative reporting and analysis that exposes what’s really happening — without compromise.

Stand with our courageous journalists. Donate today to protect a free press, uphold democracy and unearth untold stories.

SUPPORT TRUTHDIG
In this Article:
#arkansas#capital punishment#death penalty#democracy now#execution#national#politics#the guardian#usa#video