LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Bruce Ward, a convicted murderer who was the longest-serving inmate on Arkansas’ death row, has died, the state Department of Corrections said. Ward was 68.
The state Department of Corrections said Ward was pronounced dead Tuesday from natural causes. He had been held on death row at the Varner SuperMax unit in Gould, located 67 miles (108 kilometers) south of Little Rock.
Ward was on death row for 35 years after being convicted for the 1989 killing of Rebecca Doss, who was found strangled in the men’s room of the Little Rock convenience store where she worked. Ward’s death leaves 24 inmates on death row in the state.
Ward was among eight inmates the state had planned to execute over a two-week period in 2017 before its supply of a lethal injection drugs expired. Ward’s executions and three others were halted by court decisions, though the state executed four other inmates.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last month signed a new law allowing the state to use nitrogen gas for executions. The measure makes Arkansas the fifth state to legalize that method and supporters said it would allow the state to resume executions.
The longest serving inmate now on Arkansas’ death now is Don Davis, who was sentenced in 1992 for killing a northwest Arkansas woman after breaking into her home.