Ohio Man Executed for 1983 Fatal Robbery

Las Vegas Sun (via AP) ^ | January 14, 2004 | Andrew Welsh-Huggins

[Bonaparte]

Ohio Man Executed for 1983 Fatal Robbery

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
ASSOCIATED PRESS

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 the 117-pound 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. A footprint on the victim's nightgown matched his shoe, and gun residue was found on a jacket at his mother's house the day he was arrested.

Williams professed his innocence and disputed the evidence against him in a death row interview with The Associated Press last month. He said 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.

[Bonaparte]

No more tough guy.

[Bonaparte]

One for the ping list

[Delta 21]

Took long enough.

Speedy trial. Not so speedy justice.

[Bonaparte]

More on Williams execution

[rickmichaels]

117 pounds???

[Mark]

Not so speedy justice.

Here in CA, they are all dieing of old age.

[alisasny]

What took so long. Glad little boy is in hell : )

[Bonaparte]

Yep. I'm surprised his lawyer didn't try a "scrawny guy" plea.

[JLS]

"Four guards were needed to lift the 117-pound 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."

So much for the mental retardation claim. Sounds like he understood what was going on pretty well to me.

[IronJack]

Coward in life, coward in death.

[Bonaparte]

Or to gave a darned good imitation of understanding. At link in post 4, his lawyer said it was all because his mommy didn't love him enough.

[flutters]

Sadly, I think this news gets to the wrong crowd. Every inmate should be required to watch a video of this before they can be released from prison.

[Bonaparte]

I'm down with it, flutters. Nothing like watching a formerly cocky fellow convict whimper and beg for mercy as he's strapped to the guerney. Gives many a bad actor second thoughts. This used to be one of the salutory effects of public hangings.

[ladyrustic]

He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.

[bonehead4freedom]

I hope we can get the bus rolling this year!These guys have preyed on innocent people and have used every tick in the book to delay the outcome, including the retarded claim.Twenty one years, wow! We need to speed up the appeals process!

[MeekOneGOP]

Not a Texas execution, but ...

Ohio Man Executed for 1983 Fatal Robbery

Excerpt:

Four guards were needed to lift the 117-pound 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.

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas Executions ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[MeekOneGOP]

Yeah, man. That is some story. Thanks for the post and ping.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Anyone know what methods can be built into IQ assessment tests to find patterns of deliberate wrong answers? At this point it seems to be the flavor of the month among last minute defense ploys to qualify the death row inmate as having been retarded. I expect that many of them have been coached to select wrong answers. But then again - if your IQ is really 72, are you capable of faking a 68? A. Yes – but the beads of sweat will adorn your forehead!

[Bonaparte]

I don't believe in giving killers IQ tests. Nor do I believe in administering sanity tests to them. If they were that dumb or that crazy, they would have been institutionalized all along. But if a man is smart enough and sane enough to know how to dress himself, feed himself and generally get by in life, he's smart enough and sane enough to pay for his crimes. If he attempts to hide his crime and lies to the police about his crime, he knows the difference between right and wrong.

[trussell]

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