Messo a morte trentunenne condannato per omicidio e doppio stupro

WASHINGTON, 27 GIU - Un texano di 31 anni, accusato di omicidio e di stupro, e' stato messo a morte in serata a Huntsville, nel Texas. E' la diciottesima esecuzione quest'anno

nel Texas: piu' di quante ve ne sono state in tutto il 2001.

   Jeffrey Williams, che ha confessato, e' stato condannato a morte per avere prima violentato e poi ucciso la sua vicina di casa a Houston, Barbara Pullins, e per averne poi stuprato la figlia di soli 9 anni. I fatti sono avvenuti il 26 ottobre del 1994.

   Williams e' stato ucciso con un'iniezione letale, e prima di essere messo a morte ha recitato il salmo numero 23 dell'Antico Testamento, ''Dio e' il mio pastore''.

   Il record nelle esecuzioni capitali americane appartiene al Texas. Nel 2000, quando il governatore era l'attuale presidente George W. Bush, le persone giustiziate furono in tutto 40.

   L'anno scorso le pene capitali eseguite sono state 17, mentre 10 sono ancora in programma quest'anno.

   Da quando lo Stato ha ristabilito la PENA DI MORTE, nel 1982, sei anni cioe' dopo il via libera della Corte Suprema, le esecuzioni sono state 274 in tutto.

TEXAS - execution - 3-time convict executed for '94 rape-slaying --- Parolee killed woman, raped her daughter

A prayerful parolee with a penchant for stealing cars was executed today for the rape-slaying of a Houston woman in an attack where the victim's 9-year-old daughter also was raped and beaten.

 The girl's testimony helped send Jeffrey Lynn Williams to death row.

 Strapped to the death chamber gurney, Williams, 30, recited the 23rd Psalm.

 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," he said, reciting the verses, ending with "I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. Amen."

 As the drugs began flowing, Williams added, "I thank you Lord for all good things you have given me. Bless my family."

 Then he gurgled and gasped, before slipping into unconsciousness. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., 8 minutes after the lethal dose began.

 From the witness stand, the girl pointed to the three-time convict as the man who woke her Oct. 26, 1994, by choking her in her bed and then punching her in the head as she struggled.

 "If you tell anybody, I'll kill you," evidence showed he told her.

 After he left, the girl found the lifeless body of her mother, Barbara Pullins, 31. Unable to awaken the woman, the girl went to her grandmother's apartment nearby and police were summoned.

 "You hate to have to put the daughter through that but it also is necessary in order for the jury to know what happened and you get the conviction," Harris County Assistant District Attorney Lyn McClellan said his week, recalling the girl's testimony.

 Evidence showed Williams, a ninth-grade dropout who lived in an adjacent apartment complex, forced his way into Pullins' place at knifepoint, then raped and strangled her with the cord of an iron she had been using. The strangulation came after he unsuccessfully tried to suffocate the school bus driver by placing a plastic bag over her head.

 The evidence also showed he touched her body repeatedly with a lighted cigarette to make sure she was dead, then tried to burn the corpse. After attacking the woman, he moved on to the daughter, then stole Pullins' car and some items from the apartment.

 The car was found near Williams' residence. Her purse and keys, her television and a video recorder were found inside his home. His thumbprint and palmprint were found in her apartment. He confessed to police that he "just went off."

 When Williams was 17, he picked up his 1st felony auto theft conviction and a 30-day jail term. 2 months later he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for aggravated assault and another auto theft, but was paroled after only 4 1/2 months in January 1990.

 By the following year, he was back in prison with a 10-year term for auto theft, but was on parole within nine months. It took less than four months for him to receive 25 years for yet another auto theft. He was paroled about 2 1/2 years later in March 1994. The killing occurred 7 months later.

 Defense lawyers at his capital murder trial said Williams was the product of a miserable childhood and a victim of physical and sexual abuse. Prosecutors pointed out that during one of his prison terms, he had to be removed from duties as a hog butcher because he liked it too much.

 A Harris County jury deliberated for 23 minutes before returning with a death sentence.

 "You're not going to see a lot of protestations about him receiving the death penalty except for people who protest every death penalty case," McClellan said. "There's no issues on guilt-innocence, there's no issues on mental retardation or competency or anything else."

 Williams becomes the 18th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, and the 274th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Texas executed 17 condemned inmates last year.

 Williams becomes the 35th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA, and the 784th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

 With the executions of 2 death-sentenced inmates in the last 2 days, Harris County has now been the jurisdiction of 66 condemned inmates who have been put to death in Texas. Thus Houston trails only the state of Virginia, which has put to death 86 condemned inmates, also since 1982.

 Texas has now carried out more than half (18 of 35) of America's executions this year. There are 11 more known execution dates already set in Texas this year.