candidate: Clines was pronounced dead at 7:11 p.m. Fifty - eight minutes later ( 8:09 p.m. ) , Richley died on the same gurney , followed by Holmes seventy - five minutes later , at 9:24 p.m. Holmes was the ninth person executed by the state of Arkansas since " Furman v. Georgia " , , after new capital punishment laws were passed in Arkansas and that came into force on March 23 , 1973 .