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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (101812)	4/25/2005 3:30:27 PM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

In Angola, convicted killer Dobie Gillis Williams was executed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary on Friday for the bloody 1984 murder of Sonja Knippers. "I just want to say, I don't have any hard feelings against anybody," he said calmly in a final statement. "God bless ya'll. God bless." Time of death was announced as 6:48 p.m. Williams, 38, had avoided 11 execution dates in the past, including 2 which were canceled earlier this year for last-minute appeals. Warden Burl Cain talked quietly with Williams for two minutes as the lethal solution was being injected through IVs in his left arm and neck. Witnesses could not hear what they said, but Cain said later Williams expressed sorrow for putting people through so much anguish although he never admitted to killing Mrs. Knippers. At the end of the conversation, Williams lifted his head slightly and smiled. The warden put his hand under Williams head and eased it back to the gurney. 2 or 3 minutes later, Williams stopped moving. Among the witnesses was his spiritual adviser, Sister Helen Prejean, author of the book "Dead Man Walking." She held a cross and prayed as the execution took place. Williams wore a silver cross on a chain around his neck. Other witnesses included Mrs. Knippers' husband, Herbert, and her son, Monte, who was about 12 at the time of the killing. They left the prison without talking to news reporters. The execution was Louisiana's 1st since 1997, when John Ashley Brown Jr. died by injection for the 1984 stabbing death of a NASA aerospace engineer during a robbery outside a New Orleans restaurant. Williams already had a criminal history at the time of Mrs. Knippers' murder. He was on a Fourth of July prison furlough when he cornered her in her bathroom and stabbed her 8 times while her husband tried to break down the door and save her. Jurors were told scrapes on Williams' legs matched the pattern of the brick ledge outside the bathroom, so he apparently wasn't wearing pants and probably meant to rape Mrs. Knippers. DNA tests weren't available in 1984, and the November execution was called off by Gov. Mike Foster to to allow DNA testing. A Dallas lab found that blood from the bathroom curtain did match Williams', but defense attorney Nick Trenticosta challenged the results. Trenticosta said other DNA experts "characterize the entire result as garbage." He also complained that those experts had been unable to check the full DNA report until Thursday. Williams becomes the 1st condemned prisoner to be put to death in Louisiana this year and the 25th overall since the state resumed executions in 1983. Williams also becomes the 4th condemned prisoner to be put to death this year in the United States and the 504th overall since America resumed executions on Jan. 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press and Rick Halperin) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- home4.inet.tele.dk