By: Robin Murray-o'hair Re: Ark. Execution/Oklahoma B ARKANSAS EXECUTION MAY BE DISTANT LI

By: Robin Murray-o'hair
Re: Ark. Execution/Oklahoma B

ARKANSAS EXECUTION MAY BE DISTANT LINK TO OKLAHOMA BLAST

by Conrad F. Goeringer

     As attention focused on possible links involving suspects in the
Oklahoma City bombing and so-called "militia" movements, another story --
one which may have indirect ties -- was being played out in Little Rock,
Ark.

   On Wednesday night at 10:00 p.m. EDT, Richard Wayne Snell, a White
Supremacist who has been convicted of two murders in that state, is
scheduled to be executed.

   Pamphlets "of unknown origin" according to Reuters News Service have
been distributed across the state, demanding that he be set free. They
accuse Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and President Clinton of conspiracy.

   Snell would be the tenth Arkansas inmate to be executed since the
resumption of capital punishment.  What makes this case unique, though,
is that Snell has had ties to the right-wing fundamentalist Aryan
Nations, and a group known as The Covenant, The Sword, and The Arm of
The Lord.  Both organizations profess a White supremacist racial
ideology fused with apocalyptic Bible prophecy.

   Snell was convicted of shooting a Black Arkansas trooper in 1985 and
a Jewish pawnbroker in 1984.  At a recent hearing, he quoted Nazi
Rudolph Hess and "refused to express remorse for the killings."

                    --30--