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Thread: Robert Wayne Williams - Louisiana Execution - December 14, 1983

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Robert Wayne Williams - Louisiana Execution - December 14, 1983


    Robert Wayne Williams was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on February 6, 1952

    Facts of Crime: On January 5, 1979, Williams killed Willie Kelly, a 67-year-old security guard.

    Victim: Willie Kelly

    Time of Death:

    Manner of execution: Electric Chair

    Last Meal:

    Final Statement: “I believe and feel deeply in my heart that God has come into my life and saved me,” he said in a firm, strong voice. “I told the truth about what happened. If my death do happen I would like it to be a remembrance for Louisiana and the whole country that it would a deterrence against capital punishment and show that capital punishment is no good and never has been good. I would like all the people who fought against capital punishment to keep on fighting not just on my behalf but on behalf of everyone else.”

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Crime details:

    On January 5, 1979, Robert Wayne Williams and Ralph Holmes entered the A & P Supermarket located at 3525 Perkins Road in Baton Rouge. Both men placed ski masks over their faces and Williams pulled out a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun.

    They then approached the security guard, Willie Kelly, age 67, who was bagging groceries. Ralph Holmes tried to remove Kelly's pistol from his holster. As Kelly made a move with his hand toward his pistol, Williams yelled “Don't try it”, and immediately shot Kelly in the face at point blank range.

    Williams and Holmes then proceeded to complete the robbery. During this process, Holmes pistol-whipped one of the customers, and Williams accidentally shot two people in their feet.

    The police received a telephone call from an informant implicating Holmes, Williams and Williams' wife. Following their arrest, both Williams and his wife gave confessions which implicated themselves in the crime.
    Last edited by Helen; 04-26-2014 at 04:01 PM.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
    Senior Member Frequent Poster joe_con's Avatar
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    March 28, 1981

    ROBERT WAYNE WILLIAMS: Condemned killer

    By JOAN I. DUFFY
    United Press International

    BATON ROUGE, La. -- Condemned killer Robert Wayne Williams had a light criminal record for an unemployed high school dropout from the ghetto -- until he borrowed a shotgun and fired into the face of a grocery security guard.

    Now Williams, 29, is scheduled to die in the electric chair at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola between midnight and 3 a.m. Tuesday.

    Fellow inmant Timothy Baldwin, 49, sentenced to die at the same time for beating to death an 84-year-old woman, was granted a stay of execution Friday pending an April 15 hearing on his request for a new trial. If his sentence is carried out, Williams will become the fifth person to be put to death legally in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the capital punishment in 1976. His immediate predecessor was Steven T. Judy, who died in the electric chair in Indiana State Prsion the morning of March 9.

    And Williams will be the first black executed in the United States since Aaron Mitchell died in San Quentin April 12, 1967.

    During his trial, Williams claimed he had used heroin and other drugs. He said he was high during the holdup in which he literally blew away the face of the 67-year-old security guard, Willie Kelley.

    'He diDn't impress me as being angry,' said lawyer Marion Weimer, a public defender who handled Williams' 1979 trial. 'He probably was a person who was the type who could be led. He probably got to running around with the wrong people.'

    Until Jan. 5, 1979 Williams had a record of two misdemeanor offenses. Police consider it an extremely light criminal record for an unemployed, high school dropout from a black neighborhood of shanties and rundown apartments just north of the Louisiana State University campus.

    But on that winter night, Williams borrowed a .12-guage shotgun from a neighbor and headed for an A&P supermarket in a busy shopping center. After a quick stakeout he donned a ski mask and went in to rob the store.

    As assistant manager Greg Lee struggled to open a safe, security guard Willie Kelley, 67, went for his gun.

    'Don't do it, man,' Williams shouted, and fired directly into Kelley's face from a distance of three feet.

    Witnesses said Kelley was trying to surrender the weapon.

    Williams said the shotgun discharged accidently.

    When the jury returned its guilty verdict and death sentence, members of Williams' family moaned and wept.

    'You murderers,' a woman cried as the courtroom was cleared.

    Frank Blackburn, warden of the maximum security Louisiana State Penitentiary, said Williams causes no trouble on Death Row. He is visited regularly by family members.

    Blackburn said he would visit with Williams during the weekend to talk about the pending execution -- and to ask if he has any last wishes.

    http://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/03/...2756354603600/

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