Arkansas Death Row Inmate Bruce Ward Dies at 68

Bruce Ward, Arkansas's longest-serving death row inmate, has died of natural causes at the age of 68 while incarcerated at the Varner SuperMax prison. Ward was convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for the 1989 murder of 18-year-old Rebecca Doss, a convenience store clerk. His execution was initially scheduled for April 2017, but legal battles regarding his mental competency, including a diagnosis of schizophrenia, led to a stay of execution. The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that a law allowing the prison director to determine an inmate's mental fitness for execution violated due process rights, prolonging Ward's time on death row. Ward's execution warrant expired amid these legal challenges, and he remained on death row until his death. His passing marks the end of a decades-long legal and ethical debate surrounding his case.