[News] Execution

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Posted on Wed, Jan. 14, 2004
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Lewis Williams executed for 1983 fatal robbery after struggle with
guards
ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press

LUCASVILLE, Ohio - A convicted killer, struggling with guards and
pleading for his life until the last moment, was executed Wednesday
morning for the 1983 fatal robbery of a Cleveland woman.

Lewis Williams continued to profess his innocence even as he was carried
into the death chamber by four guards.

"I'm not guilty. I'm not guilty. God, please help me," Williams said as
he was strapped to the execution table.

It was the first time in nine executions since the state resumed the
practice in 1999 that an inmate has struggled with guards.

Williams, continued to cry out as his mother, Bonnie Williams, 66,
sobbed in a room separated by windows from the death chamber.

He kept pleading even in his final official statement, given at 10:07
a.m. "God, please help me. God, please hear my cry," Williams said.

Williams continued to cry out even after warden James Haviland pulled
the microphone away. Williams continued yelling until 10:08 a.m. when he
abruptly stopped speaking. His chest rose and fell a couple times.

Haviland ordered the curtains drawn at 10:14 a.m. for the Scioto County
coroner to determine that Williams was dead.

For the first time, witnesses saw members of the execution team insert
the needles that will deliver the lethal drugs into an inmate's arms.

The decision by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to allow
the process to be viewed settles 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."

It took several members of the execution team to carry a struggling
Williams into the preparation room, as seen on the monitors. At least
nine guards had to restrain Williams at various points as they prepared
his arms and inserted needles.

A camera broadcast the insertion to two video monitors in the witness
rooms next to the death chamber.

Williams, 45, repeatedly shook his head and tried to lift himself off
the preparation bed. He yelled several times, then would rest his head
and speak quietly, appearing to whisper at points and chant at other
points.

One guard standing at his head alternately restrained him and patted his
right shoulder to comfort him.

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

In 1999, a problem inserting an injection needle into Wilford Berry's
right arm delayed Ohio's first execution since 1963 for more than 20
minutes.

Williams tried unsuccessfully to challenge the constitutionality of how
inmates are executed in Ohio. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and
the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected his request to stay his
execution.

He was the first Ohio inmate whose mental retardation claim was rejected
to be executed.

Williams was scheduled to be executed in June, but it was delayed after
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Janet Burnside allowed him to present
his claim that he was mentally retarded.

The U.S. Supreme Court two years ago ruled that executing the mentally
retarded was unconstitutional.

Burnside later rejected Williams' mental retardation claim after an
expert hired by his attorneys determined he is not mentally retarded.

Williams was convicted of shooting Leoma Chmielewski, 76, during a
robbery in her Cleveland home.


H. Ellis Armistead
H. Ellis Armistead & Associates
802 E. 19th Avenue
Denver, Colorado 80218
(303) 825-2373  Fax (303) 825-2374
earmistead at coloradoinvestigators.com

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