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Ohio Murderer, Struggling to the End, Is Executed CINCINNATI - A 45-year-old condemned man, struggling and yelling "please God, help me," had to be carried into the execution chamber by six guards before being put to death on Wednesday for the 1983 murder of an elderly woman, prison officials said. Lewis Williams, Jr., was given a lethal injection at 10:15 a.m. EST at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio, for killing Leoma Chmielewski, 76. "Please God, help me. God, please help. Please hear my cry," Williams shouted as he was strapped onto a gurney to receive the lethal injection, prison spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. His mother, Bonnie Williams, witnessed her son's struggle and was taken out in a wheelchair afterward. Throughout his two decades on death row, Williams claimed innocence, arguing prosecutors used trumped-up evidence and coerced witnesses, including testimony from two inmates who testified he confessed while in jail awaiting trial. Witnesses testified Williams was at Chmielewski's home the night she was shot, and police found gunshot residue on his clothing and his shoe print on the hem of her dress. A trail of coins and the woman's empty pay envelopes were found nearby. Williams had lived across the street from Chmielewski, who was known in her Cleveland neighborhood for holding several jobs to help support family members. Williams claimed he had left the victim's house before she was killed. In his appeals, Williams argued his defense attorneys were inept because they presented little evidence to persuade the jury that he deserved mercy because he had been abused and became a cocaine user by age 13. His scheduled June 2002 execution was stayed by a judge to evaluate whether Williams was retarded, which would have commuted his death sentence. Experts hired by his attorneys determined he was not retarded and Williams fired his lawyers. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his final appeal arguing execution by lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore unconstitutional. Several death row inmates have lodged appeals based on disputed evidence that the lethal cocktail of drugs immobilizes the condemned but does not spare suffering. A federal appeals court recently stayed the execution of a Virginia inmate on those grounds. Williams was the ninth person executed in Ohio since 1999, when the state resumed executions after a 36-year hiatus. He was the fifth person to be executed this year in the United States, and the 890th since the nation resumed the death penalty in 1976. For his final meal, Williams chose the prison's regular dinner of smoked sausage, rice, black-eyed peas, collard greens and vanilla pudding.
OHIO: Williams Execution Timeline 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. A timeline: -- 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. -- 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. -- 9:54 a.m. At least nine members of the team work to restrain a struggling Williams with a series of straps. Williams, yelling and shaking his head, repeatedly strains to lift himself up. -- 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. -- 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. -- 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. -- 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. -- 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. -- 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. -- 10:14 a.m. Haviland orders the curtains drawn between the chamber and the witness room. -- 10:15 a.m. Haviland reopens the curtains and declares the time of death as 10:15 a.m. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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