"Judge to consider new evidence in appeal of Philly death row killer," is Maryclaire Dale's AP filing, via the Delaware County Times.
A Philadelphia judge will consider a death row inmate's new claims that the men he killed had sexually abused him as she mulls halting next week's scheduled execution.
Terrance Williams, now 46, is set to be the first person executed in Pennsylvania in 50 years who has not given up his appeals. He now says the two men he killed just before and after his 18th birthday had been molesting him.
His lawyers argued Tuesday that they found leads in police homicide files turned over to them only Monday night that support claims victim that Amos Norwood was a child molester. And they believe police and prosecutors knew it — but never shared the information with Williams' now-disbarred trial lawyer or the jury.
Prosecutors accused the defense of stall tactics.
"Judge says she will announce Friday whether Terrance Williams' execution can proceed," by Joseph A. Slobodzian in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
A Philadelphia judge said she will announce Friday whether she will halt the Oct. 3 execution of Terrance Williams for the 1984 killing of Amos Norwood.
Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina's announcement came Tuesday after two days of testimony on the defense claim that the 1986 trial prosecutor withheld evidence from and misled the jury before it condemned the then-18-year-old Cheyney University freshman.
Williams, 46, has exhausted his federal and state appeals and, barring emergency judicial intervention, will become the first person executed in Pennsylvania in 13 years and the first contested execution in a half-century.
Williams' lawyers argue that the jury would have opted for life in prison without parole had the prosecutor disclosed evidence that Norwood, 56, had sexually molested Williams since Williams was 13.
Instead, said defense lawyer Billy Nolas, the prosecutor portrayed Norwood's killing as the brutal culmination of a robbery of an innocent man.
"It's clear as day," Nolas told Sarmina during oral arguments Tuesday. "The sentence was unconstitutionally unreliable. The jury voted for death based on misinformation."
The arguments by Nolas and Deputy District Attorney Ronald Eisenberg followed a morning during which Nolas outlined newly discovered evidence that investigators had more information about Norwood's sexual activities than was disclosed to Williams' attorney in 1986.
"Terrance Williams' lawyers make final stand," by Mensah M. Dean in the Philadelphia Daily News.
ATTORNEYS for a Philadelphia man facing execution made a final stand Tuesday to save his life by presenting two boxes of 28-year-old police evidence that they claimed city prosecutors had kept from the jury that sentenced their client to death.The federal public defenders for Terrance Williams, 46, said the evidence, which they received Monday, contain documents corroborating their contention that their then-teenage client had been sexually abused by the middle-aged man he killed.
"We presented an extremely strong case in light of the fact that the commonwealth continued to hide evidence up until last night," defense attorney Shawn Nolan said after closing arguments in the three-day evidentiary hearing.
Assistant District Attorney Robin Godfrey told Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina that boxed evidence was the property of the Police Department, not the D.A.'s Office, and that the defense would often not receive it.
The defense team asked Sarmina to vacate Williams' 1986 death sentence and grant him a new penalty hearing, during which a jury would hear the new evidence and render a sentence of death or life in prison without parole.
A ruling will be announced Friday morning, the judge said.
"Ruling on new evidence in Terrance Williams execution case due Friday," by Donald Gilliland in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
The defense team for Terrance "Terry" Williams said the prosecution's case "stinks to high heaven" amid mounting evidence prosecutors intentionally withheld evidence from the defense when Williams was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death in 1986.Williams is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 3.
On Tuesday, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina presided of a third day of argument in an emergency hearing seeking a stay of execution. She will make a ruling on Friday morning.
The defense is arguing that the prosecution withheld evidence that the murder victim, 56-year-old Amos Norwood, had a history of fondling young boys and was likely having sex with Williams, who had just turned 18 at the time of the killing in 1984. There's evidence Norwood may have been sleeping with the boy since he was 13.
On Tuesday evidence from the 28-year-old police investigation files was entered into the record, showing the pastor at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Germantown told police he thought Norwood may have been homosexual and that there had been an incident several years earlier in which a mother claimed Norwood had propositioned her 17-year-old son for sex. Norwood was leader of the altar boys and director of a youth theater fellowship at the church.
Earlier coverage of Terry Williams' case begins at the link.
Advocates for Terry Williams have posted an online petition calling for clemency.
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