"A Push for Clemency as an Execution Nears," is the New York Times report by Jon Hurdle. Here's the beginning of this excellent recap:
The scheduled execution of a convicted murderer has prompted pleas for clemency from thousands of people who argue that he should be spared because he had been sexually abused by his victim.The inmate, Terrance Williams, 46, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Oct. 3 for killing a man after what his supporters say was years of being abused by the victim, as well as by a teacher and an older boy who first raped him when he was 6.
Mr. Williams was 18 in June 1984 when he beat to death Amos Norwood, 56.
Mr. Williams was also found guilty in a separate trial of third-degree murder, which does not carry the death penalty, for the killing in January 1984 of Herbert Hamilton, 50, who had made sexual advances toward him, according to court testimony. Mr. Hamilton was stabbed and beaten to death.
If the execution is carried out, Mr. Williams would be the first convict put to death involuntarily in Pennsylvania since 1962. Since reinstating capital punishment in 1978, Pennsylvania has executed only three people, all of whom asked for death after having exhausted their appeals.
A petition urging Gov. Tom Corbett and the state’s Board of Pardons to commute Mr. Williams’s sentence to life without parole has been signed, his lawyers said, by about 286,000 supporters, including former judges, religious leaders, mental health professionals and 35 advocates for children, who say his crimes resulted from a long history of abuse.
“Terry’s acts of violence have, alas, an explanation of the worst sort,” the advocates for children said in a joint letter in support of clemency. “Terry lashed out and killed two of the men who sexually abused him and caused him so much pain.”
The scheduled execution is opposed by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput, whose 1.5-million-member archdiocese has been shaken in recent years by evidence that some of its priests abused children.
The archbishop wrote in a weekly column on the archdiocese Web site that Mr. Williams deserved punishment but did not deserve to die because a judicial execution would perpetuate the “wrongheaded lesson of violence ‘fixing’ the violent among us.”
Mr. Norwood’s widow, Mamie, has also asked for clemency for Mr. Williams. Ms. Norwood, 75, wrote that she had been “angry and resentful” toward Mr. Williams for many years but later concluded that the only way to have a “peaceful and happy” life was to forgive him.
“I do not wish to see Terry Williams executed,” Ms. Norwood said in a signed declaration filed with the court, the prosecutor’s office and the Board of Pardons. “His execution would go against my Christian faith and my belief system.”
Pressure on Governor Corbett, a Republican, has also come from the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment, a bipartisan group that includes state lawmakers. On Thursday, the panel asked the governor to postpone planned executions until it completes a study of the death penalty and announces its findings in December 2013.
The case continues a recent focus on the sexual abuse of children in Pennsylvania after Jerry Sandusky, a former Pennsylvania State University football coach, was convicted of abusing young boys, and Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former senior official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, was convicted of child endangerment for failing to stop abuse by priests under his supervision.
"Clemency hearing in Harrisburg set for condemned Pa. killer," is the AP filing, via the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
A condemned killer who claims he was sexually abused by the man he beat to death is set for a clemency hearing today before Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons in Harrisburg.Terrance “Terry” Williams is scheduled to be executed next month for killing a Philadelphia man in 1984. He says he fatally beat Amos Norwood with a tire iron following years of sexual abuse.Today's hearing isn’t the only legal avenue Williams is pursuing to avoid execution. A judge has granted a new evidence hearing after an accomplice claimed he knew Williams was abused but authorities with whom he had a plea agreement told him to focus on a robbery motive instead.
A commission on the death penalty convened by the Pennsylvania Legislature wants Gov. Tom Corbett to delay an execution scheduled for next month.
The request comes as the state Board of Pardons holds a hearing on whether to let Terry Williams of Philadelphia be executed Oct. 3.
State Sen. Daylin Leach, who represents Montgomery and Delaware counties, co-led the caucus that sent a letter to the governor asking for a stay of execution pending its December report.
"We feel waiting a few more months to make sure that we're doing it right, that we're doing it fairly, that it is worth doing, all of those things is a reasonable approach to take," said Leach, a Democrat. "And that's what we've asked the governor to do."
The Harrisburg Patriot-News publishes an OpEd, "Justice? Pennsylvania is set to execute its first prisoner since 1999," by William DiMascio. He's executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society.
On Oct. 3, Pennsylvania is slated to perform its first execution in more than a decade. As the date rapidly approaches, Pennsylvania finds itself astride another great moral controversy: Should the state carry out the lethal injection of a man convicted at 18 of murdering a predator who might have repeatedly and violently sexually assaulted him?
In a state weary of accounts of traumatic abuse in churches and athletic facilities, Terrance Williams sits on death row awaiting the end of a tragic life that spanned the assaults of predatory men since he was 6 years old. It’s easy to decide cases where good versus evil but much more difficult to mete out justice when victims oppose victims.Mamie Norwood, widow of the man Williams and an accomplice killed in 1984, favors sparing Williams from execution. Her preference would be a commutation of Williams’ sentence to life without parole. The state Board of Pardons will hear an appeal for clemency for Williams on Monday.
"What Would Be Gained by the Execution of Terry Williams?" is David A. Love's post at Huffington Post. He's the executive director of Witness to Innocence.
There's an execution planned in Pennsylvania, the first one in thirteen years. Gov. Tom Corbett signed a death warrant for Terrance "Terry" Williams. Barring intervention from the Governor, the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, or the Philadelphia District Attorney, Williams will be executed on October 3.
But the execution should not go forward.
Two things stand out about the case of Terry Williams: First, he allegedly suffered a traumatic childhood of sexual and physical abuse, and ultimately killed two of his alleged abusers. Second, a broad coalition of organizations, religious leaders, advocates and others -- including the widow of one of his victims and several of the jurors who convicted him -- are calling for clemency for Terry.
Love also writes, "Push to shut down Pennsylvania’s death row focuses on man who killed his sexual abuser," for the Grio.
Unless the state’s Board of Pardons prevents it, Pennsylvania is about to execute Terrance “Terry” Williams, 46, who was sent to death row for the 1984 murder of Amos Norwood, a man who had sexually abused him as a child. Months earlier, Williams had killed another man who had raped him. Gov. Tom Corbett set an execution date of October 3, which would make Williams the first person put to death in Pennsylvania in 13 years.
Prosecutors characterized Williams as a serial killer, but the jurors never heard evidence of the years of horrific abuse he suffered from older men. Now, judges, prosecutors, child advocates, the jurors who found him guilty, and the widow of his victim all say his life should be spared. Moreover, over 345,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org calling for clemency for Williams. Such a viral show of support for a death row inmate has not been seen since Troy Davis a year ago this week.
Terry Williams’ case has exposed the inherent flaws in the administration of the death penalty, and has acted as a catalyst in the push for a death penalty moratorium in the Keystone state.
Earlier coverage of Terry Williams' case begins at the link.
Advocates for Terry Williams have posted an online petition calling for clemency. You can find out more about the case and read the entire clemency petition filed with Pennsylvania Board of Pardons.
Related posts are in the clemency and victims' issues index.
Comments