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Thread: Terrance Williams - Pennsylvania

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bambam02118 View Post
    DPIC is reporting an X date has been scheduled for him. Is that correct?
    PA DOC has the execution date as 09/12/12 which was stayed on July 20, 2012 by U.S. District Court for Western Pa.
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  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    So, what's going on here if Williams has already exhausted one round of federal appeals? Does this mean that he's making a hail-Mary pass for a successive habeas petition? Getting a court to grant a successive petition under the AEDPA (the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act) is nearly impossible.

  3. #13
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Hmmm, may have answered my own questions....

    Execution warrant issued for ex-Phila. man

    By Joseph A. Slobodzian
    The Philadelphia Inquirer

    Thirteen years after Pennsylvania last executed a person, a 46-year-old former Philadelphia man has been ordered put to death by lethal injection Oct. 3.

    The death warrant for Terrance Williams - convicted in a 1984 robbery-murder when he was an 18-year-old college freshman - was signed Thursday by Gov. Corbett.

    Experts say Williams' execution is likely to happen. He has exhausted three appellate avenues through state and federal courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last appeal June 29.

    Williams' only legal hope is an emergency petition asking a Philadelphia judge to stay execution based on newly discovered evidence that Williams had been sexually molested throughout his life - including for five years by the man he murdered.

    Williams' lawyer, Shawn Nolan, assistant chief of the death-penalty unit at the Federal Defender's Office in Philadelphia, said the victim, Amos Norwood, 56, had a sexual relationship with Williams that began when Williams was 13.

    And in January, Nolan said, Williams' admitted accomplice recanted his original testimony that Norwood was killed in a robbery.

    In a Jan. 9 sworn statement, Marc Draper said Williams killed Norwood because of the abusive nature of their sexual relationship. Police coerced him into saying robbery was the motive, he said.

    None of that information - including background on Williams' physical abuse by his mother and stepfather, and childhood sexual abuse by a neighbor and a teacher - was presented to the Common Pleas Court jury that condemned Williams to death in February 1986.

    "The jury didn't know about any of these things," Nolan said. "And it's important. A number of jurors have told us that if they had known about it, they wouldn't have sentenced him to death."

    According to interviews excerpted in court documents filed by Nolan last month, all five jurors the lawyers located also said they voted for death because they were under the mistaken impression that a life sentence would have allowed Williams to be released on parole.

    Pennsylvania does not permit parole for people sentenced to life for first- or second-degree murder. Ambiguous jury instructions given by judges during the 1980s have resulted in numerous capital cases being overturned and remanded for new sentencing hearings.

    The District Attorney's Office has resolved many of those cases through new guilty-plea agreements or, as in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, deciding to abandon the death penalty and accept life sentences.

    Tasha Jamerson, spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams, said the office had no immediate comment on the Williams case.

    Nolan said the District Attorney's Office must respond to his petition by Sept. 21. The emergency appeal has been assigned to Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to decide whether to block the Oct. 3 execution.

    The Norwood murder shocked many people, in large part because of how Norwood's body was found.

    Norwood was last seen leaving his Mount Airy home on June 11, 1984, to do volunteer work at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Germantown.

    Four days later, a boy walking his dog found Norwood's charred body propped against a gravestone in Ivy Hill Cemetery in West Oak Lane. He had been beaten to death with a tire iron.

    A month later, police charged Draper, 18, son of a police Civil Affairs Unit officer. Draper, in turn, implicated Williams in the killing, which he said began as a robbery.

    That was just the start. Draper also told police that Williams admitted to him that on Jan. 26, 1984, he had stabbed to death Herbert Hamilton, 50, after Hamilton made sexual advances.

    Hamilton's nude body, beaten and stabbed, had been found in his West Philadelphia apartment.

    Williams' friends and associates were shocked at the allegations against a young man who overcame an abusive childhood to excel as a Germantown High School quarterback and go on to Cheyney University.

    Draper became the key prosecution witness against Williams in both killings.

    Williams was convicted of third-degree murder in Hamilton's death in February 1985 after the jury believed his self-defense claim and evidence of Hamilton's homosexuality.

    A year later, Williams was convicted of first-degree murder in Norwood's killing and sentenced to death.

    Draper pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Norwood's death and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Now 46, Draper is at the state prison in Frackville, Schuylkill County.

    Whether Williams' latest petition is enough to halt his execution is unclear. Just three people have been executed since Pennsylvania reenacted the death penalty in 1978 - two in 1995, the last in 1999 - and only because all three ended their appeals and asked for death.

    Marc Bookman, executive director of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, urged the District Attorney's Office to take a new look at the case.

    "We're hopeful that the D.A.'s Office will take a very careful look at this case," Bookman added. "It appears that Terry Williams suffered very horrible sex abuse throughout his lifetime, and the crimes that he committed were as a very young person, barely 18 and 17."

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20...hila__man.html

  4. #14
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In the whole horrible panoply of capital crimes, this one doesn't seem to be quite the ideal one to re-commence involuntary executions in Pennsylvania after 50 years of not conducting any at all.

  5. #15
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    Pa. death-row inmate fights slated Oct. execution

    PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A death-row inmate convicted of killing two people in his teens hopes to avoid becoming the first person executed in Pennsylvania since 1999.

    Terrance Williams, 46, is on death row for fatally beating a man with a tire iron in 1984. Although he has exhausted his appeals, he has asked a Philadelphia judge to halt the scheduled Oct. 3 lethal injection based on new evidence about the victim and the key accuser.

    "The killing of Amos Norwood was not a first-degree murder," Shawn Nolan, a federal public defender, wrote in a petition filed on Williams' behalf this year. "Terry Williams and the victim ... were involved in a conflicted sexual relationship in which Norwood paid teenaged Terry for sex. Norwood escalated the violence of their sexual encounters, despite Terry's attempts to stop (it)."

    New statements from co-defendant Marc Draper, a policeman's son who testified against Williams in both murder cases, support his claims of a sexual relationship with Norwood. Jurors never heard about the potential motive, or about the deal Draper says he got to testify, Nolan said.

    Nor did they hear Williams' claims that he had been physically and sexually assaulted throughout his childhood, and gang-raped at a juvenile facility.

    Although the state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence, two judges dissented, finding "a fairly stark picture" of ineffective counsel during the penalty-phase — which consisted of brief, fairly banal comments from Williams' mother, the mother of his infant child and a cousin.

    "If I had known those circumstances at that time — what had led him down that path — that definitely would have been a factor and my decision would have been different than the death sentence," juror Thomas Sturgis told defense investigators, according to Williams' petition.

    Pennsylvania has executed only three people since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976. All of them chose to end their appeals. The last person executed was Gary M. Heidnik, for the murders of two of several women he tortured and held captive in his Philadelphia basement.

    Unlike them, Williams has asked a Philadelphia judge for a stay of execution. The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted him, must respond to his petition by Sept. 21. The office had no comment Friday on the case, spokeswoman Tasha Jamison said.

    Williams is also serving a life sentence for third-degree murder for another 1984 slaying which occurred when he was 17. That victim was also an adult male who had sexually abused him, according to his petition. He was also convicted of a 1982 armed robbery.

    Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed Williams' death warrant on Thursday, as he has 15 others. But those inmates have not yet exhausted their state and federal appeals.

    "The governor is sworn to uphold the laws of Pennsylvania, including capital punishment," Corbett spokeswoman Janet Kelley said.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/P...#ixzz23C0f48v3

  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Moh View Post
    In the whole horrible panoply of capital crimes, this one doesn't seem to be quite the ideal one to re-commence involuntary executions in Pennsylvania after 50 years of not conducting any at all.
    After reading his habeas petition, it paints a starkly different picture than the sob story his lawyers are running with.

    He's killed two people, the second of which was killed while he was awaiting trial for a violent robbery. His lawyers are desperate.

  7. #17
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Thanks for setting me straight. After all these years, I should've known better than to wholly base my opinion on a news article. Unfortunately, journalists often just uncritically regurgitate the appellant's version of events.

  8. #18
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    Even if he was really sexually assaulted like he said, the fact that he committed three violent felonies in a fairly short period is pretty death-worthy.

  9. #19
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    My mistake. He was awaiting sentencing for third degree murder when he committed the second murder.

    I think the fact that someone is 18 or younger should be a mandatory mitigating factor, but I think it's ridiculous that it was removed as an option altogether, because age does not equal maturity. Williams was well adjusted enough to graduate from high school while being a sports star, so I think he shouldn't get the benefit of the doubt.

  10. #20
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    Stop Oct. 3 execution of killer, victim’s widow says

    Lawyers and advocates for condemned murderer Terrance "Terry" Williams - including the widow of one of his victims - today petitioned Gov. Corbett and the state Board of Pardons to stop Williams' scheduled Oct. 3 execution.

    The petition for clemency argues that Williams, 46, should not be executed because his crimes were mitigated by a childhood of sexual abuse that included assaults by a neighbor and the man he killed in 1984.

    "The evidence of abuse in this case is clear," reads a letter of support signed by 26 child advocates and experts in sexual abuse. "There can be no doubt that Terry was repeatedly and violently abused and exploited as a child and teenager by manipulative older men.

    "Terry's acts of violence have, alas, an explanation of the worst sort: enveloped by anger and self-hatred, Terry lashed out and killed two of the men who sexually abused him and caused him so much pain."

    The petition also includes an extraordinary letter of support by Mamie Norwood, the widow of Amos Norwood, whom Williams was convicted of killing in 1984.

    While calling her husband's murder "unbearable for me," Norwood wrote that "several years ago, after much prayer and self-reflection, I found the strength and courage to forgive Terry Williams.

    "I do not wish to see Terry Williams executed," Norwood's letter continued. "His execution would go against my Christian faith and my belief system. He is worthy of forgiveness and I am at peace with my decision to forgive him and have been for many years. I wish to see his life spared."

    The clemency petition could well be Williams' last hope for escaping death by lethal injection. His lawyers say he has exhausted all his appeals.

    But it is a long shot. His petition must be reviewed by the Board of Pardons, which must then unanimously recommend that Corbett spare Williams life. The recommendation is not binding on the governor.

    Corbett himself set in motion the clemency process when he signed a death warrant for Williams on Aug. 9.

    If Williams' execution takes place, it would be the first in 13 years. Just three people have been executed since Pennsylvania reenacted the death penalty in 1978 - two in 1995, the last in 1999 - and only because all three ended their appeals and asked for death.

    Williams was an 18-year-old college freshman when he was arrested in the murder of Norwood, 56.

    The Amos Norwood murder shocked many people, in large part because of how Norwood's body was found.

    Norwood, 56, was last seen leaving his Mount Airy home on June 11, 1984 to do volunteer work at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Germantown.

    Four days later, a boy walking his dog found Norwood's charred body propped against a gravestone in Ivy Hill Cemetery in West Oak Lane. He had been beaten to death with a tire iron.

    A month later, police charged Marc Draper, 18, son of a police Civil Affairs Unit officer. Draper, in turn, implicated Williams in the killing he said began as a robbery.

    Draper also told police Williams admitted to him that on Jan. 26, 1984 he had stabbed to death Herbert Hamilton, 50, after Hamilton made sexual advances.

    Hamilton's nude body, beaten and stabbed, was found in his West Philadelphia apartment.

    Williams' friends and associates were shocked at the allegations against a young man who overcame an abusive childhood to excel as a Germantown High School quarterback and go on to Cheyney University.

    None of that information - including background on Williams' physical abuse by his mother and stepfather and childhood sexual abuse by a neighbor and a teacher - was presented to the Common Pleas Court jury that condemned Williams to death in February 1986.

    According to interviews excerpted in court documents filed last month, five jurors located by Williams' lawyers also said they voted death because they were under the mistaken impression that a life sentence would have allowed Williams to be released on parole.

    Pennsylvania does not permit parole for people sentenced to life for first- or second-degree murder.

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20...idow_says.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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