KYW-AM/FM/TV posts, "Death Row Inmate’s Last Chance," by Cherri Gregg.
A Philadelphia judge is expected to hear new evidence today in a hearing that could mean a stay of execution for convicted killer Terry Williams.Earlier this week, a clemency board in Harrisburg refused to grant clemency to Williams. If Williams is unsuccessful today, he will be executed on October 3rd.
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Federal defender Shawn Nolan says they will present new evidence about what prosecutors knew at trial.
“The jurors have now come forward and said if they had known that evidence, they wouldn’t have voted for death. And we are arguing that that should have been disclosed to the defense, it should have been disclosed to the jury.”
Nolan says co-defendant Marc Draper will take the stand. He came forward in January saying he told the police and DA about the abuse. Andrea Folkles, the DA who prosecuted the case, will also testify.
"Attorneys to ask Pennsylvania judge to call off killer's execution, citing sex abuse," by Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley at CNN.
Attorneys are set to ask a Pennsylvania judge Thursday to call off the execution of a death row inmate, arguing prosecutors withheld evidence that he was sexually abused by the man he later beat to death with a tire iron.Terrance Williams, 46, is scheduled to be executed on October 3 for the 1984 slaying of Amos Norwood.
Defense attorneys argue that the jurors who convicted Williams more than 25 years ago were told that it was a robbery-homicide case and never learned of the alleged sexual abuse.
A sworn statement from the case's primary witness -- who is serving a life sentence for his involvement in the murder -- supports that allegation.
Marc Draper has said the prosecution at the time pushed him not to disclose that Williams was routinely sexually abused by Norwood, and that the abuse was Williams' primary motive to kill Norwood. He is expected to testify Thursday.
The sexual abuse allegedly began when Williams was 6 years old, according to his attorneys.
"Several jurors now say they would have voted for life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of death if they had known this important information," Williams' attorneys said in a statement last month after his execution date was set.
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Since the execution date was set, there have been a number of high-profile supporters calling for clemency in the case, including Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly. More than 360,000 people have signed an online petition asking authorities to spare Williams' life. Norwood's widow has also asked for the execution to be called off.
But Norwood's daughter wants the execution to go forward, the Philadelphia district attorney's office said Monday.
The state's Board of Pardons on Monday failed to reach the unanimous agreement required to recommend clemency. Three members of the five-person panel voted in favor of asking Corbett to consider granting clemency. But two other board members voted against the petition.
Andrew Cohen posts, "In Pennsylvania, a Clemency Catch-22," at the Atlantic.
In the Alice-in-Wonderland world that is the Pennsylvania justice system, a man who won his clemency hearing Monday is scheduled to be executed anyway in two weeks. Terrance Williams -- a man raped throughout his childhood until he finally murdered his adult rapists; a man whose life before prison and redemptive life in custody caused even his victim's wife to lobby on his behalf; a man whose jurors tried 25 years after his trial to rescue him -- received three of five clemency votes Monday following a 90-minute hearing before the state Pardons Board. He won the day, 3-2, and yet he's still scheduled for lethal injection on October 3.
This is so because Pennsylvania law requires a unanimous clemency vote in capital cases, even where, as here, the condemned prisoner seeks no release from custody but rather life in prison without parole. It's been this way since 1997. The two dissenting votes -- two more death sentences for a man whose 1986 trial was incomplete and inaccurate -- came from the state's lieutenant governor, Jim Cawley, and Harris Gubernick, a longtime prison official. Voting in favor of clemency were state Attorney General Linda Kelly, "victim representative" Louise B. Williams, and Dr. Russell A. Walsh, a psychologist.
There was no written ruling that accompanied the vote. There was no official explanation or justification from the state Pardons Board to help us understand how dooming Williams serves the interests of justice. There was no press conference or email blast. But, really, what could the dissenters have said? That they blew off the wishes of Mamie Norwood, the victim's wife, who says today that Williams is "worthy of forgiveness" after all these years? It was her husband, Amos Norwood, who reportedly preyed on Williams, savagely raping him over and over again until Williams brutally murdered him in 1984.
Earlier coverage of Terry Williams' case begins at the link. Andrew Cohen's earlier column on the case is also available.
Advocates for Terry Williams have posted an online petition calling for clemency.
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