diff --git a/dev/release/verify-release-candidate.sh b/dev/release/verify-release-candidate.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..1ff34fd78cd5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev/release/verify-release-candidate.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+
+case $# in
+  2) VERSION="$1"
+     RC_NUMBER="$2"
+     ;;
+  *) echo "Usage: $0 X.Y.Z RC_NUMBER"
+     exit 1
+     ;;
+esac
+
+set -e
+set -x
+set -o pipefail
+
+SOURCE_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]:-$0}")" && pwd)"
+ARROW_DIR="$(dirname $(dirname ${SOURCE_DIR}))"
+ARROW_DIST_URL='https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/arrow'
+
+download_dist_file() {
+  curl \
+    --silent \
+    --show-error \
+    --fail \
+    --location \
+    --remote-name $ARROW_DIST_URL/$1
+}
+
+download_rc_file() {
+  download_dist_file apache-arrow-rs-${VERSION}-rc${RC_NUMBER}/$1
+}
+
+import_gpg_keys() {
+  download_dist_file KEYS
+  gpg --import KEYS
+}
+
+fetch_archive() {
+  local dist_name=$1
+  download_rc_file ${dist_name}.tar.gz
+  download_rc_file ${dist_name}.tar.gz.asc
+  download_rc_file ${dist_name}.tar.gz.sha256
+  download_rc_file ${dist_name}.tar.gz.sha512
+  gpg --verify ${dist_name}.tar.gz.asc ${dist_name}.tar.gz
+  shasum -a 256 -c ${dist_name}.tar.gz.sha256
+  shasum -a 512 -c ${dist_name}.tar.gz.sha512
+}
+
+verify_dir_artifact_signatures() {
+  # verify the signature and the checksums of each artifact
+  find $1 -name '*.asc' | while read sigfile; do
+    artifact=${sigfile/.asc/}
+    gpg --verify $sigfile $artifact || exit 1
+
+    # go into the directory because the checksum files contain only the
+    # basename of the artifact
+    pushd $(dirname $artifact)
+    base_artifact=$(basename $artifact)
+    if [ -f $base_artifact.sha256 ]; then
+      shasum -a 256 -c $base_artifact.sha256 || exit 1
+    fi
+    shasum -a 512 -c $base_artifact.sha512 || exit 1
+    popd
+  done
+}
+
+setup_tempdir() {
+  cleanup() {
+    if [ "${TEST_SUCCESS}" = "yes" ]; then
+      rm -fr "${ARROW_TMPDIR}"
+    else
+      echo "Failed to verify release candidate. See ${ARROW_TMPDIR} for details."
+    fi
+  }
+
+  if [ -z "${ARROW_TMPDIR}" ]; then
+    # clean up automatically if ARROW_TMPDIR is not defined
+    ARROW_TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d -t "$1.XXXXX")
+    trap cleanup EXIT
+  else
+    # don't clean up automatically
+    mkdir -p "${ARROW_TMPDIR}"
+  fi
+}
+
+test_source_distribution() {
+  # install rust toolchain in a similar fashion like test-miniconda
+  export RUSTUP_HOME=$PWD/test-rustup
+  export CARGO_HOME=$PWD/test-rustup
+
+  curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh -s -- -y --no-modify-path
+
+  export PATH=$RUSTUP_HOME/bin:$PATH
+  source $RUSTUP_HOME/env
+
+  # build and test rust
+
+  # raises on any formatting errors
+  rustup component add rustfmt --toolchain stable
+  cargo fmt --all -- --check
+
+  # Clone testing repositories if not cloned already
+  git clone https://github.com/apache/arrow-testing.git arrow-testing-data
+  git clone https://github.com/apache/parquet-testing.git parquet-testing-data
+  export ARROW_TEST_DATA=$PWD/arrow-testing-data/data
+  export PARQUET_TEST_DATA=$PWD/parquet-testing-data/data
+
+  # use local modules because we don't publish modules to crates.io yet
+  sed \
+    -i.bak \
+    -E \
+    -e 's/^arrow = "([^"]*)"/arrow = { version = "\1", path = "..\/arrow" }/g' \
+    -e 's/^parquet = "([^"]*)"/parquet = { version = "\1", path = "..\/parquet" }/g' \
+    */Cargo.toml
+
+  cargo build
+  cargo test
+}
+
+TEST_SUCCESS=no
+
+setup_tempdir "arrow-${VERSION}"
+echo "Working in sandbox ${ARROW_TMPDIR}"
+cd ${ARROW_TMPDIR}
+
+dist_name="apache-arrow-rs-${VERSION}"
+import_gpg_keys
+fetch_archive ${dist_name}
+tar xf ${dist_name}.tar.gz
+pushd ${dist_name}
+test_source_distribution
+popd
+
+TEST_SUCCESS=yes
+echo 'Release candidate looks good!'
+exit 0