Arkansas Inmate Pleads for Execution as Legal Challenges Halt Controversial Method

Scotty Gardner, a 60-year-old inmate on Arkansas’s death row, is publicly requesting to be executed, describing his prison cell as a “cave” plagued with mold, poor plumbing, and insects. Gardner, who was convicted in 2018 for murder and theft, previously served time for attempted murder and shooting his ex-wife while she was pregnant.

Gardner expressed a desire for any form of execution, including firing squad or electric chair, and has urged authorities to set a date for his death. His pleas come amidst legal obstacles posed by other inmates opposing Arkansas’s recent adoption of nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution.

In 2025, Arkansas authorized nitrogen hypoxia—suffocation with pure nitrogen gas—as an alternative execution method, a largely untested process also used in select countries outside the US. Its implementation remains unclear, and no executions have taken place in Arkansas since 2017, when a series of lethal injections was carried out over a frantic 11-day span.

While Arkansas seeks to diversify its execution protocols, a lawsuit filed by ten inmates challenges the legality of using nitrogen hypoxia. They argue that sentences specifically for lethal injection cannot be altered to impose this new, controversial method. Typically, nitrogen hypoxia is employed in countries with limited access to traditional lethal injection drugs, and its use in the US is still experimental.

Though legally authorized, the medical and procedural details of administering nitrogen hypoxia in Arkansas remain uncertain. The state last carried out an execution in 2017, with multiple plans halted or botched, leading to many inmates dying in limbo within their cells, often of natural causes.

Notably, Bruce Ward, Arkansas’s longest-serving death row inmate, died of natural causes in April at age 68 after spending 35 years awaiting execution. Other inmates, such as Latavious Johnson, have also died while on death row, highlighting the ongoing delays and legal complexities surrounding capital punishment in the state.