Greg B

Dig this story from CNN. Ohio executed a dude who kept professing his innocence. Normally we'd say 'so what?' but read what happened when they dragged him to the execution chamber. If this dude was really innocent this is some fucked up shit.


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Ohio murderer, struggling to the end, is executed
Thursday, January 15, 2004 Posted: 0522 GMT ( 1:22 PM HKT)

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- A murderer whose claims of mental retardation were rejected by the courts was executed Wednesday after struggling with guards and pleading for his life until the last moment.

Lewis Williams, 45, was put to death by injection for fatally shooting a 76-year-old woman during a robbery at her Cleveland home in 1983.

Four guards were needed to lift Williams from his knees and pry his hand off the edge of a table before carrying him into the death chamber. As he was strapped to the execution table he cried, "I'm not guilty. God, help me."

At least nine guards restrained him as they prepared his arms and inserted needles. One guard standing at his head alternately restrained him and patted his right shoulder to comfort him.

Williams repeatedly shook his head and tried to lift himself off the preparation bed. He yelled several times, then rested his head and spoke, appearing to whisper or chant quietly.

Williams kept pleading even as the warden pulled the microphone away after his final official statement: "God, please help me. God, please hear my cry." He was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m.

His mother, Bonnie Williams, 66, sobbed in an adjacent room separated by a window.

"It was an awful thing to watch," assistant state public defender Stephen Ferrell said. "The struggle caught us by surprise. He didn't seem to be like that this morning."

It was the first time witnesses in Ohio saw members of the execution team insert the needles that delivered the lethal drugs into the condemned inmate's arms.

The decision by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to allow the process to be viewed settled a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in September, said prisons system director Reginald Wilkinson.

Wilkinson said officials would review what happened with Williams.

"I would say it was disturbing. I would say it was traumatic," Wilkinson said. "It was probably as traumatic as anything our staff has gone through."

Williams was executed for shooting Leoma Chmielewski in the face during a robbery in her home.

Williams professed his innocence in a death row interview with The Associated Press last month, saying he was in Chmielewski's house the night she died but left before she was killed.

His execution, originally set for June, was delayed while a judge considered his claim that he was mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. The judge rejected the claim after an expert hired by Williams' attorneys found that he was not mentally retarded.

Williams was the ninth inmate executed in Ohio since the state resumed the death penalty in 1999.

xroach

he's not guilty, the devil made him do it

the line between religeous and retarded is so thin ..

tbabe

"Williams professed his innocence in a death row interview with The Associated Press last month, saying he was in Chmielewski's house the night she died but left before she was killed."


Well...ok then.

OneHungLo

reminds me of that episode on faces of death when they electrocute that prisoner..man the look on that guys face knowing he was gonna die.

funkmaster

... the relatives of the lady he shot went through the same shit, justice was done.

hottoddy

"I didn't mean to murder that poor old woman, Jebus. Oh sweet Lordy, have mercy on my poor black hide!"

Paul Markham

Isn't America right up at the top of of the "Executions" list. Especially Texas, I think it has became an every day occurance there.

So America must be a really safe place to live with the ultimate penalty being dealt out so freely.

If ti were not so tragic it would be laughable.

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Pornwolf

What's eerie about that?

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Joe Citizen

That scene, like many others in Faces of Death, is a fake.

makefuckingmoney

plenty of retards on here and God dont help them either!

hottoddy

Shh ... Don't tell him that! He'd have gone to his grave believing that Faces of Death footage was real.

stocktrader23

Oh the sanity!!!!!!

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tbabe

Im pretty sure china executes more people. North korea, saudi arabia and a few others. US is probably tops for industrialized nations, but they also got 300 million people.

powerbubba

When I read that article earlier today, the first thing that ran through my mind is the number of people convicted of serious crimes who have been released based on DNA evidence. Shows how easy it is to convict the innocent. I don't know if he's innocent or guilty, but I don't just assume he's guilty based solely on the fact he was convicted.

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Shoehorn!

Agreed.