A divided Pennsylvania Board of Pardons voted against clemency for convicted Philadelphia killer Terrance "Terry" Williams in the 1984 killing of Mount Airy churchman Amos Norwood.In order for the clemency recommendation to proceed the board would have needed to vote unanimously in the decision.
The 3-2 vote in favor of clemency by the five-member board came after a 90-minute hearing and 35 minutes of private deliberations over whether it should make a nonbinding recommendation to Gov. Corbett to commute Williams' Oct. 3 execution by lethal injection to life in prison without chance of parole.
In seeking clemency, Williams' lawyers cited his youth at Norwood's murder - three months over 18, the minimum age for execution - and that Williams was sexually abused by Norwood and several other men.
With Williams' state and federal appeals exhausted all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the 46-year-old former Germantown High School quarterback's last hope of escaping becoming the first person executed in Pennsylvania in 13 years lies in a hearing Thursday before Philadelphia Common Pleas M. Teresa Sarmina.
Since Sept. 7, when they filed the motion for clemency before the Pardons Board, Williams' lawyers have been involved in a legal and public campaign to show that he should not be executed because the Philadelphia jury that condemned him did not know of years of sexual abuse at the hands of his victim and other men.
Williams' lawyers have obtained the support of Norwood's 75-year-old widow, Mamie Norwood, in pleading for his life. And they have obtained three sworn statements this year from his admitted accomplice in the Norwood killing.
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Williams' scheduled Oct. 3 execution comes as a bipartisan legislative task force is studying the death penalty's efficacy and is to issue a report in December 2013.
Last week, the task force's legislative leaders - state Sen. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat, and state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, a Montgomery County Republican and all 12 members of its advisory committee asked Corbett to halt executions until the task force files its report.
Corbett issued a statement saying that capital punishment was one of the governor's sworn duties under the state Constitution and that he would exercise it when warranted.
"Clemency bid rejected for condemned PA killer," is the initial AP filing, via WITF-FM.
Pennsylvania's Pardons Board is denying a request for clemency from a condemned killer who could become the first person since 1999 to be executed in the state.The request from Terrance "Terry" Williams was denied Monday after a hearing in Harrisburg. The defense had said Williams was sexually abused for years by the middle-aged man he beat to death in 1984 at the age of 18.
Witnesses drew comparisons to Jerry Sandusky's victims in the Penn State child sex scandal and said Williams deserved to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
Earlier coverage of Terry William's case begins at the link. A Philadelphia judge has scheduled a hearing for this Thursday in William's case.
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