Killer who murdered a cheerleader and two others APOLOGIZES for his 'senseless' crimes and convulses on the execution gurney - as he becomes the last Arkansas inmate to be put to death before drug expires

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Arkansas has executed murderer Kenneth Williams - the fourth inmate to be put to death by the state in eight days

A man put to death in Arkansas over the murder of a cheerleader and two others was left lurching and convulsing on the execution gurney before he died. 

Kenneth Williams, 38, was given the lethal injection on Thursday after legal motions delayed the procedure for more than two hours.  

The executed murderer was the fourth and final inmate to be put to death by the state in eight days.

Williams began 'coughing, convulsing, lurching, and jerking with sound' for about 20 seconds before his time of death at 11.09pm CT.

After the jerking, Williams breathed through his mouth and moaned or groaned once - during a consciousness check - until falling still seven minutes into the lethal injection.  

The killer had asked for forgiveness in his final statement. Williams decided against having a last meal, and opted for a communion instead, according to a witness.

In his last words, Williams said: 'I was more than wrong; the crimes I perpetrated against you all was senseless.' 

'I'm not the person that I was, but I have been transformed when I gave my life to Christ.' 

Williams was serving a life sentence for the 1998 murder of 19-year-old student and cheerleader Dominique Hurd when he escaped the penitentiary on October 3, 1999 by hiding in a tank used to carry kitchen scraps. 

A witness reported that the lethal injection was first administered to Williams at 10:52pm. He was pronounced dead at 11:05pm

Williams was 'coughing, convulsing, lurching, and jerking with sound' for about 20 seconds at approximately 10:55, according to a witness

The daughters of one of Williams' victims said witnessing the execution wasn't about pleasure but about 'not enduring this anymore,' according to a witness

He came upon Cecil Boren, 57, on his farm not far from the prison, shot and killed the man and stole his truck.

Williams drove north to Missouri where he led police on a chase that caused the death of 24-year-old delivery driver Michael Greenwood.

In 2005, he also confessed to killing Jerrell Jenkins.  

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from Williams, allowing officials to proceed with plans to put the condemned killer to death. 

The state had initially held off on executing Williams, who was scheduled to die at 7pm, as officials awaited word from the high court. 

His death brought Arkansas' execution spree to an end. They planned to kill eight inmates in 11 days before their execution drug ran out, but legal blocks meant only four died on the gurney. 

Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson released a statement, saying: 'The long path of justice ended tonight and Arkansans can reflect on the last two weeks with confidence that our system of laws in this state has worked.

'Carrying out the penalty of the jury in the Kenneth Williams case was necessary. There has never been a question of guilt. 

Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson (seen in the above January 2017 file photo) released a statement, saying: 'The long path of justice ended tonight and Arkansans can reflect on the last two weeks with confidence that our system of laws in this state has worked'

Williams' first victim was 19-year-old student and cheerleader Dominique Hurd (left and right). While serving a life sentence for her murder he escaped and killed three more people

Hours ahead of his execution, Greenwood's daughter sent a letter to Hutchinson asking the governor to spare the life of her father's killer.

'We are in no way asking you to ignore the pain felt by the victims of Mr Williams' other crimes. We know what they are going through but ours is a pain that we have decided not to try and cure by seeking an execution,' Kayla Greenwood wrote.

'His execution will not bring my father back or return to us what has been taken, but it will cause additional suffering.'

She said her family, upon learning that Williams has a daughter as well as a granddaughter whom he's never met, bought the pair plane tickets to Arkansas so they could visit him one last time. They even picked up the woman and child at the airport and drove them to the prison. 

Meanwhile, the Boren family said it would be relieved to know Williams had been put to death.

'We've been waiting a long, long time for this,' Boren's widow Genie told local news station Fox 16. 

'People have to be punished for things they've done.'

After his escape, Williams came upon Cecil Boren, 57, (above) on his farm not far from the prison, shot and killed the man and stole his truck

Williams drove north to Missouri, where he led police on a chase that caused the death of 24-year-old delivery driver Michael Greenwood (pictured left with his wife Stacey)

His lawyers have argued, among other things, that Williams should be spared because he is intellectually disabled.

Hutchinson has said the accelerated execution timetable was necessary because the state's stock of a sedative, midazolam, used in lethal injections will expire at the end of the month.

Many of the legal clashes focus on midazolam, which is meant to render a condemned person unconscious before other drugs induce death.

Critics say it does not always adequately sedate prisoners, potentially causing undue suffering.

The state carried out its first execution since 2005 last Thursday, putting convicted murderer Ledell Lee to death at its Cummins Unit, near Varner, Arksansas. 

Jack Jones and Marcel Williams, convicted separately of rape and murder in the 1990s, were executed on Monday in the nation's first double execution in nearly 17 years.

Jack Jones (left) and Marcel Williams (right), convicted separately of rape and murder in the 1990s, were executed on Monday in the nation's first double execution in nearly 17 years

Arkansas set off a legal battle when it announced plans to execute eight death row inmates, pictured here, in 11 days. Kenneth Williams, bottom row, third from the left, was executed Thursday

DEATH ROW INMATES EXECUTED IN ARKANSAS IN THE PAST WEEK

LEDELL LEE

Lee, 51, was sentenced to die for the 1993 death of his neighbor Debra Reese, who was struck 36 times with a tire tool her husband had given her for protection. 

He also was serving prison terms for the rapes of a Jacksonville woman and a Jacksonville teenager.

Lee, who struck Reese 36 times, was arrested less than an hour after the slaying after spending some of the $300 he had stolen from her. 

He had been released on parole 10 weeks before her death after serving time for burglary and theft. 

DNA evidence linked Lee to other attacks, including the abduction of Christine Lewis, 22.

Lewis was abducted five days before being found beaten, raped and strangled. 

Jurors in that trial couldn't reach a decision and prosecutors dropped the case after the state Supreme Court upheld Lee's death sentence for Reese's murder.

Lee was executed April 20. 

Jack Jones (above) seen in the above September 2007 file photo at a clemency hearing in Arkansas

JACK HAROLD JONES JR.

Jones, 52, was convicted of killing bookkeeper Mary Phillips in 1995 and trying to kill her daughter, Lacy, during a robbery at an accounting office. Phillips was found naked from the waist down with a cord from a nearby coffee pot tied around her neck. Lacey, left for dead, woke up as police photographed her.

Lacey testified that Jones had visited the accounting office twice on the day her mother died and described his tattoos to investigators. Courts rejected appeals based on Jones' claim that lawyers didn't do enough to keep him off death row.

Jones was executed Monday.

MARCEL WILLIAMS

Williams, 46, was convicted of suffocating a young mother of two after raping her. Stacy Errickson typically carpooled to work in North Little Rock with a friend, but the 22-year-old drove her own truck on Nov. 20, 1994.

Prosecutors say Williams abducted her when she stopped for gas in Jacksonville, then drove her to various ATMs and had her take out about $350. Police found the woman's hosiery and lunch cooler at a storage facility, then found her beaten and bound body in a park two weeks later.

Williams confessed to killing the woman. His jury deliberated about 30 minutes.

Williams was executed Monday.

KENNETH WILLIAMS 

Williams, 38, was given the lethal injection on Thursday after legal motions delayed the procedure for more than two hours.   

Williams was serving a life sentence for the 1998 murder of 19-year-old student and cheerleader Dominique Hurd when he escaped the penitentiary on October 3, 1999 by hiding in a tank used to carry kitchen scraps.  

He came upon Cecil Boren, 57, on his farm not far from the prison, shot and killed the man and stole his truck.

Williams drove north to Missouri where he led police on a chase that caused the death of 24-year-old delivery driver Michael Greenwood.

In 2005, he also confessed to killing Jerrell Jenkins.  

  - Associated Press