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Rutledge Seeks Dismissal For Greene’s Stay Of Execution

PINE BLUFF (KFSM) — Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has filed a motion to dismiss a stay of execution for convicted murderer Jack Greene, whose lawyers a...
jack greene

PINE BLUFF (KFSM) — Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has filed a motion to dismiss a stay of execution for convicted murderer Jack Greene, whose lawyers argue he isn’t competent to be executed due to a psychiatric disorder.

In a motion filed Tuesday (Oct. 10) in Jefferson County Circuit Court, Rutledge argued that “Arkansas and federal courts have soundly rejected the contention that Greene is mentally incompetent. There is no reason for this court to reach a different conclusion.”

Greene, 62, was convicted of capital murder for killing Johnson County resident Sidney Jethro Burnett in 1991. At the time, Greene was wanted as a person of interest in the murder of his brother in North Carolina.

Rutledge called the complaint the “latest in a decades-long effort to invalidate” Greene’s death sentence. She also argued that because Green “has not stated claims for which this court can grant relief, he is not entitled to the stay of execution he requests.”

Greene is scheduled to be executed Nov. 9.

Greene’s lawyers have argued he wouldn’t understand why he is being executed because of his mental illness and being sexually abused as a child. They also said Greene’s family has a history of mental illness.

In addition to a stay of execution, Greene’s lawyers sought a declaratory judgement that he is incompetent to be executed and that his confinement over the last 25 years rendered his sentence unconstitutional.

Greene has been on death row since 1992. Since 2003, he has been kept in total solitary confinement at the Varner Supermax Unit in Grady.

Last week, the state parole board denied Greene’s clemency request.

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