For the second time, lawyers for condemned Philadelphia killer Terrance "Terry" Williams go before Pennsylvania's Board of Pardons Thursday to urge the board to recommend that Gov. Corbett commute Williams' death sentence to life in prison without parole.With less than a week to go before Williams, 46, is to be executed by lethal injection on Oct. 3, Williams' lawyers are moving on at least two fronts to keep him alive.
In Philadelphia, Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina will decide Friday whether to grant Williams' plea for a stay of execution.
And:
Williams' lawyers first sought clemency from the state pardons board on Sept. 17, armed with support by more than 300,000 signed supporters including an affidavit from Mamie Norwood, the victim's 75-year-old widow.
Though the board voted 3 to 2 for clemency for Williams, 46, a unanimous vote was needed for the nonbinding recommendation to Gov. Corbett.
In a letter to the board on Sept. 18, Williams' lawyers asked for reconsideration because of how Assistant District Attorney Thomas Dolgenos answered a question from pardons board member Harris Gubernick.
"Pa. pardons board to hear condemned killer's clemency request a 2nd time," is the AP filing, via the Republic.
The state Pardons Board will consider a condemned Philadelphia man's clemency request for a second time less than a week before he's scheduled to be put to death.The pardons board will meet Thursday morning to consider the request from 46-year-old Terrance "Terry" Williams, who was convicted in 1986 of fatally beating a man he now claims had been sexually abusing him.
"Inquirer, Harrisburg paper seek viewing of executions," is by Amy Worden of the Inquirer's Harrisburg Bureau.
The Inquirer and the Harrisburg Patriot-News asked a federal court Wednesday to literally pull back the curtain on the state's execution chamber and allow witnesses to see the whole procedure.The suit says the state Department of Corrections is violating the state constitution by a policy preventing witnesses to the commonwealth's first execution in 13 years from observing the entire process.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District one week before convicted murdered Terrance Williams is scheduled to be executed at Rockview state prison in Centre County for the 1984 bludgeoning death of Amos Norwood in Philadelphia.
And:
The state's execution protocol gives witnesses, who include reporters, only a brief glimpse of the process during which the lethal injection is administered.
"The execution protocols deprive the public of the information necessary to engage in an informed debate about the most severe penalty the government can impose on its citizens," the suit says.
If Williams is put to death, witnesses, including the victim's family and citizens, will not see the demeanor of the prisoner or anyone else in the room, including the execution team. Nor does the protocol allow them to see if force is used when the prisoner is strapped down in the gurney or if the prisoner displays any signs of pain throughout, the suit says.
Nor does the protocol provide the condemned the opportunity to make a final statement while visible to the witnesses, the suit says.
Under Pennsylvania procedures, the prisoner, if he chooses, either writes or dictates a statement beforehand, and it is provided to reporters afterward, said Susan McNaughton, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
McNaughton said the department does not comment on litigation.
The Harrisburg Patriot-News reports, "Newspapers file suit to determine if execution is humane," by Charles Thompson.
The Patriot-News and The Philadelphia Inquirer filed a federal suit Wednesday seeking greater access for reporters who are witnesses to the scheduled Oct. 3 execution of convicted murderer Terrance Williams.
The newspapers are battling state Department of Corrections rules that, as written, only permit reporters and other public witnesses to see the administration of the lethal injection firsthand, but none of the steps leading to or following that.
The suit contends those rules, established in 2010, interfere with the press’ opportunity to gauge whether Pennsylvania’s death penalty can be administered humanely.
It seeks an order allowing all witnesses to “view and hear the entirety of the execution from the moment the condemned enters the execution chamber through ... the time the condemned is declared dead.”
Public radio station WITF-FM posts, "What happens next in the execution process for Terrance Williams," by Mary Wilson.
Planning is underway for the first state execution in Pennsylvania since 1999.Terrance “Terry” Williams is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on October 3, at 7 p.m. at a state prison in Centre County. Williams received the death penalty for murdering a Philadelphia man in 1984 as an 18-year-old.
In early August, Gov. Corbett signed a death warrant for the 46-year-old man setting the wheels in motion for the lethal injection to be carried out. The warrant was signed because Williams had exhausted the appeals process.
But there have been some developments since then – two recent appeals, on parallel tracks, could derail the execution before next Wednesday.
Earlier coverage of Terry Williams' case begins with the preceding post.
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