25 March 2017 :

The Judiciary Committee of the Arkansas House of Representatives considered three death penalty bills. It voted against HB 2170, which would end death penalties for persons with a serious mental illness and also would vacate the death penalty for those already convicted who have a serious mental illness. It failed on a voice vote. The committee also said no on a voice vote to HB 1798, which would have raised the standard for applying the death penalty in the sentencing phase to “beyond any doubt.”  Consideration of HB 2103, which would end capital punishment in Arkansas was deferred after legislators noted that it seemed to offer punishments of either life imprisonment or life without parole for capital murder, rather than just life without parole.