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Terry Williams Sentenced to Execution for Killing Two Men Who Sexually Abused Him as a Child
Terrance Williams of Pennsylvania has been sentenced to death after killing two men when he was 17- and 18-years old. What the jury did not know, however, was that Williams had been brutally raped as a child by the two men he killed.
Williams and another teen killed one man just a few months after Williams had turned 18, according to Change.org. He also admitted that he killed another man five months earlier. One man was a church leader and another was a sports booster. The men used their positions to get access to young boys.
Williams was allegedly sexually abused for years by these men, but he was also abused by other older individuals throughout his life. His mother had abused him frequently and his father was absent from the home. His first experience with sexual assault was when he was just six years old, and the abuse continued steadily for the next 12 years of his life.
He did not receive treatment or help from anyone for the duration of his suffering.
How do we know these abuse accusations are true -- and not just Williams making a calculated attempt at saving his life?
According to The Nation, "It was not until this past winter that another witness would come forward, a former pastor named Charles Pointdexter, who knew Norwood for thirty years. He admitted having known that he had sexually abused teen boys.
“Amos seemed to have lots of close relationships with young men…” he stated in an affidavit signed February 9, 2012, saying that he began to suspect that they were “inappropriate” in nature. A few years before Amos’s death, one of the parishioners, the mother of a 15-year-old boy, told him that he had “touched her son’s genitals” during a car ride and that “Amos had inappropriately touched a number of boys at the church.” Pointdexter kept the knowledge to himself.
Because Williams was embarrassed and ashamed by the abuse, he says he did not present his experiences as evidence for trial. His lawyer also failed to conduct a thorough investigation of Williams’ motivations for killing the men, and ignored obvious signs of sexual abuse.
Many notable people have come forward to state that they would like his sentence to be reduced to life without parole. Among those objecting to his sentencing include the wife of one victim, five jurors from the trial, judges, child advocates, former prosecutors, faith leaders, mental health professionals, and law professors.
Jurors from the trial now say they would not have voted for execution had they known about his experiences with sexual abuse as a child.
A widow of one victim said that she has forgiven Williams and does not want any more deaths to come of the incident. She expressed hope that Governor Tom Corbett, the Board of Pardons, and District Attorney Williams will reduce his sentence to life without parole.
Courts have agreed that Williams’ lawyer failed to give him a fair trial, but they also have stated that evidence of sexual abuse would not have made a difference in the sentencing.
Jurors, however, have signed sworn affidavits saying they would not have voted for death if they had known about his past.
Several jurors have also said that they voted for him to be executed because they believed that, if they had not, Williams would be eligible for release on parole.
However, a life sentence in Pennsylvania means the convicted will never be eligible for parole. Pennsylvania is the only state in the U.S. that does not require judges to explain to the jury that a life sentence means there is no possibility of parole.
No explanation of life sentencing was given at Williams’ trial.
Terry Williams’ death warrant for October 3 was signed by Gov. Corbett last week. Corbett is a Catholic Republican.
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Comments
It is hard to know where to
It is hard to know where to stand on this. Murder is never a solution to any problem, yet brutal sexual abuse of a child is also a heinous, dark crime that also can't be tolerated.
Even with that in mind, I can't find it within myself to condemn Williams for what he did. For a child to be sexually abused for years by those in a position of trust is the absolute worst thing that can happen to a child, with the end result that it produces people like Williams, who felt that murder was the only way out for him.
That Williams' parents ignored and abused him is clearly their fault. But also at fault is the pastor Pointdexter, who had knowledge of the abuse and yet did nothing. Certainly at fault are the many men who abused Williams and drove him to commit murder and who turned him into a bitter, hateful man.
Ultimately, however, it is society who has failed Williams, for allowing the abuse in the first place, for not giving him a safe way to release his anger, and for not offering him the help he needed when he needed it. It is we who are guilty, and it is we who should pay his penalty.
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” -- Benjamin Franklin
..."Ultimately, however, it
..."Ultimately, however, it is society who has failed Williams, for allowing the abuse in the first place, for not giving him a safe way to release his anger, and for not offering him the help he needed when he needed it. It is we who are guilty, and it is we who should pay his penalty."
That's absurd. "Society" is not at fault for anything, only individuals. "Society" did not allow the abuse, those who knew of it and let it continue did. Help was available, he just chose not to take advantage of it. "We" are not guilty, but of you insist on being punished for another's crimes, that's up to you, but you may not assign blame to everyone else.
As a supporter of the death
As a supporter of the death penalty, I think they should reduce his sentence. I would even have him eligible for parole at some point. When courts and prosecutors appear unjust, it puts the death penalty in general in peril.
The Injustice system at work,
The Injustice system at work, what a pathetic puppet of the rich. If you want justice you purchase it, the more money you have the more justice you can buy.
Not a court in the land not staffed by clowns or psycho's.
Those that can't or won't defend themselves can only be slaves.
roy Anthony Davis (October 9,
roy Anthony Davis (October 9, 1968 – September 21, 2011)[1][2] was an American man convicted of and executed for the August 19, 1989, murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King restaurant when he intervened to defend a man being assaulted in a nearby parking lot. During Davis's 1991 trial, seven witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail, and two others testified Davis had confessed the murder to them among 34 witnesses who testified for the prosecution, and six others for the defense, including Davis. Although the murder weapon was not recovered, ballistic evidence presented at trial linked bullets recovered at or near the scene to those at another shooting in which Davis was also charged. He was convicted of murder and various lesser charges, including the earlier shooting, and was sentenced to death in August 1991.
Davis maintained his innocence up to his execution. In the 20 years between his conviction and execution, Davis and his defenders secured support from the public, celebrities, and human rights groups. Amnesty International and other groups such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People took up Davis's cause. Prominent politicians and leaders, including former President Jimmy Carter, Rev. Al Sharpton, Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. Congressman from Georgia and presidential candidate Bob Barr, and former FBI Director and judge William S. Sessions called upon the courts to grant Davis a new trial or evidentiary hearing. In July 2007, September 2008, and October 2008, execution dates were scheduled, but each execution was stayed shortly before it was to take place.
In 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to consider whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis's] innocence." The evidentiary hearing was held in June 2010. The defense presented affidavits from seven of the nine trial witnesses whose original testimony had identified Davis as the murderer, but who it contended had changed or recanted their previous testimony. Some of these writings disavowed parts of prior testimony, or implicated Sylvester "Redd" Coles, who Davis contended was the actual triggerman. The state presented witnesses, including the police investigators and original prosecutors, who described a careful investigation of the crime, without any coercion. Davis did not call some of the witnesses who had supposedly recanted, despite their presence in the courthouse; accordingly their affidavits were given little weight by the judge. Evidence that Coles had confessed to the killing was excluded as hearsay because Coles was not subpoenaed by the defense to rebut it
Guess what. Last yr there was
Guess what. Last yr there was an innocent man name Troy Anthony Davis (October 9, 1968 – September 21, 2011)[1][2] was an American man convicted of and executed for the August 19, 1989, murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King restaurant when he intervened to defend a man being assaulted in a nearby parking lot. During Davis's 1991 trial, seven witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail, and two others testified Davis had confessed the murder to them among 34 witnesses who testified for the prosecution, and six others for the defense, including Davis. Although the murder weapon was not recovered, ballistic evidence presented at trial linked bullets recovered at or near the scene to those at another shooting in which Davis was also charged. He was convicted of murder and various lesser charges, including the earlier shooting, and was sentenced to death in August 1991. n 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to consider whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis's] innocence." The evidentiary hearing was held in June 2010. The defense presented affidavits from seven of the nine trial witnesses whose original testimony had identified Davis as the murderer, but who it contended had changed or recanted their previous testimony. Some of these writings disavowed parts of prior testimony, or implicated Sylvester "Redd" Coles, who Davis contended was the actual triggerman. The state presented witnesses, including the police investigators and original prosecutors, who described a careful investigation of the crime, without any coercion. Davis did not call some of the witnesses who had supposedly recanted, despite their presence in the courthouse; accordingly their affidavits were given little weight by the judge. Evidence that Coles had confessed to the killing was excluded as hearsay because Coles was not subpoenaed by the defense to rebut it.
But here a innocent man dies on death row. thanks to the people with wicked hearts, evil. now Our justice system murder him. do they get the death penalty.
If ever there was a case for
If ever there was a case for clemency... here it is.
Amen to that! You couldn't
Amen to that! You couldn't make this up. What a horrid labyrinth of Merkin jurisprudence I've stumbled upon here!
Only thing is, I've lost count of the number of homosexual strangers that messed with MY genitals during my childhood - none of them church people by the way - before I was old enough to consent to any kind of "sex". Thank God, only one of them showed direct interest in my anus, and I managed to fight him off. Nevertheless, early exposure to this disgusting perversion - which perversion I gather is nowadays on the school syllabus for children without even two digits to their age - has blighted MY life; but I've never murdered anybody in revenge.
Sadly, since I was a young boy myself, it has virtually become a doctrine of the school syllabus, that it amounts to "hate speech" for young boys to dare to complain (for example, to their heterosexist bigoted parents, or their politically re-educated teachers) about the unwanted attention of would-be pederasts.
If countries that still have capital punishment don't want to have to put to death those who have taken lethal revenge upon those who were their abusers when they were children, those countries have to stop labelling as "bigots", children who object so strongly to being sexually abused that they feel like murdering their abusers.