6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Denies Stay
Judge Eric Clay - first to call the vote illegal
Williams Execution Timeline OHIO - January 14
Lewis Williams, executed Wednesday for the 1983 fatal robbery of a Cleveland woman, struggled and pleaded for help from the moment the execution process began. He was the 1st inmate to struggle since Ohio resumed executions in 1999.
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A timeline: |
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9:51 a.m. |
Movement detected around the preparation table in a room next to the death chamber, as seen through two video monitors. It is the 1st time in 9 executions that the preparation process was viewed by witnesses. |
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9:52 a.m. |
Members of the 12-person execution team forcibly lift Williams from his knees and pry his hand off the edge of the preparation table. Williams' mother, Bonnie Williams, 66, of Columbus, sobs as she watches from a witness room. There were no witnesses for the victim, Leoma Chmielewski. |
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9:54 a.m. |
At least nine members of the teamwork to restrain a struggling Williams with a series of straps. Williams, yelling and shaking his head, repeatedly strains to lift himself up. |
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9:56 a.m. |
Williams continues to struggle and shout. One guard standing by his head alternately restrains him and pats his right shoulder to comfort him. |
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10:02 a.m. |
The shunts are successfully placed on the inside of Williams' forearms above the elbow. Williams has stopped shouting but continues to speak, often in a type of chant, that is not audible. |
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10:03 a.m. |
The straps are taken off and Williams, his body drooping, is carried into the execution chamber by four guards. He yells, "I'm not guilty, I'm not guilty, God, please help me," as 7 guards strap him down. |
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10:06 a.m. |
A member of the execution team enters the chamber and attaches the tubes carrying the lethal chemicals to the shunts in Williams' arms. |
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10:07 a.m. |
Williams is asked for a last statement. "God, please help me, God, please hear my cry," he said. James Haviland, warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, gives a signal not visible to witnesses to start the flow of chemicals. |
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10:08 a.m. |
After continuing to cry out and yell, Williams abruptly stops speaking as the chemicals apparently take effect. The sobbing of his mother grows much louder. |
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10:14 a.m. |
Haviland orders the curtains drawn between the chamber and the witness room. |
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10:15 a.m. |
Haviland reopens the curtains and declares the time of death as 10:15 a.m. |
(source: Associated Press)
Judge: Vote on Ohio Execution Illegal January 15
In Columbus, a federal appeals' court vote denying a convicted killer's request to delay his execution was illegal because 2 judges improperly participated in the vote, a federal judge who wrote a dissenting opinion said.
Judge Eric Clay of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the delay would have been granted if not for the 2 senior judges' votes. He did not specify the tally of the 12-judge vote.
Federal law allows senior judges to participate in a vote by the full court only if they participated in the initial panel ruling on the same case, he said. The 2 judges, Richard F. Suhrheinrich and Cornelia G. Kennedy, were not on the 3-judge panel that ruled against the convict's request Monday.
Clay issued his dissenting opinion Tuesday, when the full court ruled against blocking Lewis Williams' execution.
Williams, 45, struggled with guards and pleaded for help before he was executed Wednesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He was sentenced to death for shooting a Cleveland woman in a 1983 robbery.
No one at the appeals court would comment on the dissenting opinion. A message was left with the attorney general's office seeking comment.
(source: Associated Press)
Judges join dissent on execution delay January 16
In Columbus, 5 federal appeals court judges say a convicted killer's request to delay his execution was illegally denied because 2 senior judges participated in the vote.
4 judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday added their names to a 5th judge's dissenting opinion in the case of condemned inmate Lewis Williams, executed Wednesday in Lucasville.
Federal law allows senior judges to participate in a vote by the full court only if the judges participated in the initial panel ruling on the same case, said the 5 judges.
Judge Eric Clay was the first to call the vote illegal, in an opinion Tuesday as the court ruled against blocking Williams' execution.
Williams, 45, struggled with guards and pleaded for help until the end Wednesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He was sentenced to death for shooting a Cleveland woman in a 1983 robbery.
The 4 judges who added their names Thursday: Boyce Martin of Louisville; Martha Craig Daughtrey of Nashville, Tenn.; Karen Nelson Moore of Cleveland; and Guy Cole of Columbus.
(source: Cincinnati Enquirer)
Judge Calls Vote On Execution Improper
A decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, to allow an execution was tainted by illegal voting, a judge on the court said. The judge, Eric L. Clay, wrote that a majority of active judges on the court had voted to stay the execution of the prisoner, Lewis Williams, 45, who was executed yesterday for the 1983 murder of Leoma Chmielewski, 76. But 2 semiretired judges, who are usually not allowed to participate in the full court, voted, changing the outcome, Judge Clay wrote.
(source: New York Times)
Expanded viewing of executions increases accountabilityThe disturbing mental images created by witness descriptions of Wednesday's execution of Lewis Williams clearly requires Ohio prison officials to revisit a recent decision.
Under pressure from the ACLU to allow witnesses to view the entire proceedings leading up to executions, the state changed its policies for Williams' execution, the 9th since Ohio resumed death sentences.
Those opposed to the death penalty wanted greater access to view the condemned as they are brought to the execution chamber, prepared for their lethal injection and strapped into the bed. In the past, curtains were drawn until the inmate was restrained and prepared to offer a final statement.
Williams, who professed his innocence until his final moments, was the first Ohio inmate to struggle with the state's execution team, even gripping a door frame in an effort to delay his death. The scene disturbed everyone from public defenders to the prison's director, making one wonder if the ACLU got more than it bargained for.
State officials immediately began a probe to determine if Williams struggled more because of the increased public viewing or if he would have behaved in the same manner no matter what. Unfortunately, we'll never really know.
Either way, we see nothing wrong with the increased accountability the new policy provides. Ohio prison officials should welcome a chance to show how professionally they handle this difficult process
(source: Editorial, The Advocate)
