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Thread: Marcel Wayne Williams - Arkansas Execution - April 24, 2017

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    Marcel Wayne Williams - Arkansas Execution - April 24, 2017





    Facts of the Crime:

    On November 20, 1994, Stacy Errickson, the victim, on her way to work, stopped at the Jacksonville Shellstop for gas. The time was approximately 6:45 a.m. Williams approached Errickson's vehicle, drew a firearm, and forced her to move from the driver's seat to the passenger's side. Williams then drove Errickson's car away from the convenience store. Williams then took Errickson to several automated teller machines and coerced her to attempt withdrawals. A total of eighteen transactions yielded the sum of $350. The last transaction occurred at 7:37 a.m. These transactions were recorded by security cameras at several banking facilities. Stacy Errickson did not make it to work that day, nor did she pickup her child from the babysitter at the end of the day.

    Police arrested Williams on an outstanding warrant on November 29, 1994, and questioned him based on physical evidence linking him to two other assaults on women. During the course of an intensive interrogation lasting some thirteen hours, Williams admitted having abducted Errickson from the convenience store and robbing her through ATM withdrawals. However, he denied any sexual assault and assured the officers that to the best of his knowledge Errickson was alive. Appellant attempted to implicate others as accomplices asserting that they were the ones responsible for physically harming her. Based upon information Williams supplied, the police recovered a sheet matching Williams description as one he used in connection with the abduction and also recovered a gold ring which Williams identified. On December 5, 1994, police discovered Stacy Errickson's body buried in a shallow grave. Other evidence adduced at trial indicated that witnesses Tammy Victoria and Tammy Keenahan identified Williams as a man they had seen on the morning of November 20, 1994, at the Shellstop. They also testified that after they left the station he followed them in a car and attempted to stop them until they sought refuge at the air force base. Williams subsequently returned to the Shellstop and abducted Stacy Errickson.

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    June 11, 1998

    WILLIAMS v. STATE

    Marcel Wayne WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Respondent,

    No. CR 97-9

    Based on the foregoing, we hold that Mr. Wright is in contempt of court for failing to file Mr. Williams's brief in a timely manner.   We note that Mr. Wright filed the brief on May 26, 1998.   We assess a fine of $250.00.   A copy of this order will be forwarded to the Committee on Professional Conduct.

    Opinion here

    http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ar-suprem...t/1131014.html

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    January 17, 2002

    WILLIAMS v. STATE

    Marcel Wayne WILLIAMS v. STATE of Arkansas.

    No. CR 00-822

    We will not grant postconviction relief for ineffective assistance of counsel where the petitioner failed to show what the omitted testimony was and how it could have changed the outcome.  Id. Williams has failed to demonstrate there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's failure to introduce the evidence of his troubled youth, the jury would have reached a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.   As Williams has failed to demonstrate both error and prejudice, we affirm.

    Affirmed.


    Opinion here

    http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ar-suprem...t/1226632.html

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    Submitted: January 15, 2009
    Filed: August 17, 2009

    United States Court of Appeals
    FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

    For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is affirmed in part
    and reversed in part. The petition for a writ of habeas corpus is denied in its entirety.


    Opinion here

    http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/09/08/071984P.pdf

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    Dissent

    Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ginsburg, dissented from the denial of cert in Williams v. Hobbs, a habeas case involving a capital defendant. At trial, defense counsel had called only one witness during the penalty phase, who did not know the defendant personally, and who testified from his own experience that life was more pleasant on death row than in the general prison population. The defendant's direct appeal and state habeas petitions arguing ineffective assistance of counsel were unsuccessful. On federal habeas review, the district court found the State court's denial of the defendant's ineffective-assistance claim to be unreasonable, and conducted an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the defendant had been prejudiced by the ineffective assistance. The hearing revealed substantial mitigating evidence that could have been introduced during the penalty phase. The district court granted habeas relief on the strength of that evidence, but the Eighth Circuit reversed, finding that the defendant failed to prove prejudice based on facts before the State court. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(2) generally provides that courts shall not hold evidentiary hearings on a claim if a habeas petitioner has failed to develop the factual basis for the claim in State court proceedings. The Court declined to hear the case.

    Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg would have taken the case and vacated the Eighth Circuit's judgment. The dissenters acknowledged that the State could have raised an objection under § 2254(e)(2) to stop the district court from holding the evidentiary hearing. But they disagreed with the Eighth Circuit's finding that the State had in fact objected. To the contrary, the record indicated that the State affirmatively consented to the hearing, and tried to use new evidence developed at the hearing to its own strategic advantage. The dissenters also disagreed with the Eighth Circuit's decision in the alternative, to exercise its discretion to consider the § 2254(e)(2) issue even if the State had not objected: "It is true . . . that the policy against evidentiary hearings in federal habeas promotes principles of comity and federalism…. But when the State voluntarily participates in a federal evidentiary hearing—without objection, with an apparent intent of supplementing the record for its own purposes, and at a significant cost and expenditure of judicial resources—those interests are significantly diminished if not altogether absent."

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    Inmate Personal Information

    DOB: 08/20/1970
    Race: Black
    Gender: Male

    Crime and Trial Information

    * County of conviction: Pulaski
    * Number of counts: One
    * Race of Victim: White
    * Gender of Victim: Female
    * Date of crime: 11/20/1994
    * Date of Sentencing: 01/14/1997

    Legal Status

    Current proceedings:
    Cert petition pending; filed 04/22/10

    Attorney

    Julie Bryan

    Court Opinions

    Williams v. State, 991 S.W.2d 565 (Ark. 1999) (affirming conviction and sentence); Williams v. State, 64 S.W.3d 709 (Ark. 2002) (affirming denial of post‐conviction relief); Williams v. Norris, 2006 WL 1699835 (E.D. Ark. June 19, 2006) (dismissing habeas corpus in part); Williams v. Norris, 2007 WL 1100417 (E.D. Ark. April 11, 2007) (granting the writ solely on the ground of ineffective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase of the trial and dismissing the other claims); Williams v. Norris, 576 F.3d 850 (8th Cir. 2009) (reversing the grant of habeas relief and affirming the dismissal of remaining claims).

    Legal Issues

    On appeal to the 8th Cir.:
    (1) whether state court's ruling that habeas petitioner was not prejudiced by trial counsel's alleged ineffectiveness for failing to produce additional mitigating evidence was contrary to federal law;
    (2) whether the district court committed reversible error by granting evidentiary hearing without citing the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA);
    (3) whether petitioner was entitled to evidentiary hearing in federal habeas proceeding to investigate his ineffective assistance claim;
    (4) whether state's proffered reason for using peremptory strike for African‐American prospective juror was pretextual;
    (5) whether state court's determination that petitioner's waiver of his Miranda rights was knowing and intelligent was contrary to federal law; and
    (6) whether state court's determination that sufficient evidence established that murder was committed in an especially cruel or depraved manner was contrary to federal law.

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    Beebe resumes setting executions

    Gov. Mike Beebe has resumed setting execution dates despite some ongoing court deliberations on death penalty challenges. His announcement:

    Governor Mike Beebe has received four letters in recent months from Attorney General Dustin McDaniel certifying that appeals have run their course for death-row inmates.

    Beebe did not immediately set the execution dates, as there were other death-penalty cases already stayed and awaiting additional Court decisions.

    At this point, Governor Beebe has decided that he is obligated to begin setting these execution dates, pending additional actions by the courts.

    The execution date for Frank Williams, Jr., ADC# SK-924, will be June 22, 2011.

    The execution date for Marcel W. Williams, ADC# SK-943, will be July 12, 2011.

    Frank Williams' previous date had been cancelled, but legal issues have now been cleared, a spokesman for Beebe said. This is the first date set by the governor for Marcel Williams. At least three other Death Row inmates are enmeshed in new challenges based on execution procedures. The governor is aware of those pending issues, but decided "you could only wait so long before you try to proceed."

    http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog...ing-executions

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    Parole board denies Ark. inmate's clemency request

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Board of Parole has decided not to recommend clemency for a death row inmate convicted in the 1994 slaying of a young woman.

    The seven-member board based its unanimous decision this week in part on Marcel Williams' prior criminal history and the nature and seriousness of his offense. Its recommendation heads to Gov. Mike Beebe, who will ultimately decide whether to grant Williams clemency.

    Williams is set to die July 12, though he and two other death row inmates scheduled to die this summer are seeking stays of their executions. No stay had been granted in Williams' case as of Wednesday.

    "We're disappointed in their recommendation but we expect the governor will see the matter differently," said Scott Braden, who heads the death penalty department for the federal public defender's office in Little Rock.

    A spokeswoman for Beebe declined to comment on whether the governor will likely grant Williams clemency.

    But even if the governor denies clemency for Williams, it's not likely that he'll be put to death this summer because of looming court challenges to the way the state kills its condemned prisoners. Previous execution orders have been set aside while arguments were before the court.

    Williams was sentenced to death after he raped and murdered 22-year-old Stacy Errickson in 1994. Prosecutors said he abducted the mother of two when she stopped to get gas in Jacksonville, and then withdrew money using her bank card.

    If he dies by lethal injection this summer, Williams would be the first Arkansas inmate to be executed since 2005.

    Though court documents refer to Williams as Marcel, some prison records refer to the 40-year-old as Marcell.

    http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/ar...#ixzz1POJT9DDi

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    High court halts three executions

    By John Lyon
    The Arkansas News Bureau

    LITTLE ROCK — The state Supreme Court today halted the executions of three inmates who are challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection in Arkansas.

    The high court issued stays for the executions of Jason Farrell McGehee, who was scheduled to die July 26; Bruce Earl Ward, who was scheduled to die Aug. 16; and Marcel Wayne Williams, who was scheduled to die July 12.

    The three men are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court alleging that a state law authorizing the director of the state Department of Correction to choose the drugs used for lethal injection constitutes an unconstitutional delegation of authority.

    The Supreme Court today directed the circuit court to provide it with a status update on the case.

    A clemency hearing and victim input hearing in McGehee’s case were scheduled for today at the state Parole Board’s headquarters in Little Rock.

    McGehee was convicted of capital murder and kidnapping in Boone County Circuit Court in the 1996 kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old John Melbourne Jr. Prosecutors said McGehee and accomplices killed Melbourne because they believed he had talked to police about their involvement in stealing and forging checks.

    Ward was convicted of capital murder in 1990 in Pulaski County Circuit Court in the 1989 rape and murder of 18-year-old Little Rock convenience store clerk Rebecca Lynn Doss, who was found strangled in the men’s restroom of the store where she worked the night shift alone.

    Williams was convicted of capital murder, rape, kidnapping and aggravated robbery in Pulaski County Circuit Court in the 1994 killing of 22-year-old Stacy Errickson of Jacksonville. Errickson was found in a shallow grave near the Arkansas River with her hands bound behind her, two weeks after she was abducted from a gas station where she had stopped to buy gas. The coroner ruled she had been suffocated.

    http://arkansasnews.com/2011/06/23/h...ee-executions/

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    Marcel Wayne Williams v Ray Hobbs

    A federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of lawsuits by death-row inmates that challenged the way Arkansas conducts executions.

    The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday denied the appeals on grounds that the lawsuits only speculated about possible problems and didn't identify constitutional violations.

    Marcel Wayne Williams filed one lawsuit and seven other condemned inmates joined in a similar court action.

    The inmates argued that the state shouldn't be allowed to change its lethal injection procedures without proper notice and that the uncertainty heightened their anxiety about suffering as they are being killed.

    The state has no scheduled executions.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...eals-Arkansas/

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