It is further respectfully requested that this sentence be carried out expeditiously.Arkansas state law allowed the waiving of capital appeals so long as a separate hearing determined the competence of the condemned man.

Whitmore had exhausted his direct line of appeals within the state and was about to pursue a habeas corpus claim in federal court.

[3] In 1989, the Arkansas Supreme Court, citing Franz's petition, rejected Whitmore's motion to intervene in Simmons' case.

On March 15, 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of execution for Whitmore to give time for it to consider his case.

[11] Whitmore was cited in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld to deny both Christian Peregrim, a private citizen, and Frank Dunham, a public defender for the Eastern District of Virginia, next of friend standing to request habeas relief for Yaser Hamdi, an American-born resident of Kuwait who was captured in Afghanistan.