Summary:

The body of 76 year old Leoma Chmielewski was discovered lying face down on the floor of her home.

An autopsy revealed that she had suffered multiple blunt force injuries to the head and neck, as well as a single gunshot wound fired from close range into her face.

Her home was ransacked and the phone was off the hook. Williams was seen one hour earlier in the doorway of the home with Chmielewski.

An imprint on the hem of the nightgown Leoma was wearing matched a portion of a shoe Williams was wearing the day of his arrest. Williams' jacket sleeve cuff also contained a trace of lead powder.

Two cellmates also testified that Williams admitted the murder to them. Williams changed his story several times about his involvement, including one statement that his gun went off while fighting with Chmielewski's dog.

Citations:

Williams v. Ohio, 124 S.Ct. 816 (2003) (Cert. Denied).
Williams v. Coyle, 122 S.Ct. 2635 (2002) (Cert. Denied).
Williams v. Anderson, 118 S.Ct. 1681 (1998) (Cert. Denied).
Williams v. Dubose, 113 S.Ct. 665 (1992) (Cert. Denied).
Williams v. Ohio, 107 S.Ct. 1385 (1987) (Cert. Denied).
State v. Williams, Not Reported in N.E.2d (Ohio App. 1984) (Direct Appeal).

Final Meal:

Declined.

Final Words:

"I'm not guilty. I'm not guilty. God, please help me. God, please hear my cry."

ClarkProsecutor.org

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

Inmate #: 176623

Inmate: Williams, Lewis

DOB: 12/26/58

County of Conviction: Cuyahoga

Date of Murder: 01/20/83

Received at DOC: 11/23/83- Mansfield Correctional Institution.

Offenses: PETTY THEFT, AGG ROBBERY, PETTY THEFT, AGG ROBBERY, AGG ROBBERY, AGG MURDER

ProDeathPenalty.com

On 1/20/83, Lewis murdered his cousin's neighbor, 76-year-old Leoma Chmielewski, in her home.

Williams ransacked the house, beat Ms. Chmielewski in the head and neck, shot her in the face at close range and stomped on her chest, leaving his shoe print on her nightgown.

On January 21, 1983, the body of Leoma Chmielewski, a seventy-six-year-old woman, was discovered lying face down on the floor of her home.

An autopsy revealed that Leoma had suffered multiple blunt force injuries to the head and neck, as well as a single gunshot wound fired from close range (approximately two feet or less) into her face.

Witnesses established that Leoma was last seen between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m. the evening of the 20th, standing in her doorway talking with Lewis Williams.

Between 10:30 and 11:00, Leoma's neighbors heard a sound from her house like a door slamming. Williams was arrested on January 22, 1983 and admitted being in the house the night of the murder, but denied killing Leoma.

The evidence produced at Williams' trial established the following sequence of events. Early in the evening of January 20, 1983, Williams and two acquaintances, Brent Nicholson and Tyrone Robinson, visited and had dinner with Williams' cousin, Kevin Samuels.

Samuels lives across the street from Leoma Chmielewski's house and had known her for several years. Prior to the night of the incident in question, Williams had stayed with Samuels and had known Leoma.

On the evening of the 20th, Robinson and Williams left the Samuels residence, at approximately 9:00 p.m., to go to the store. Only Robinson returned a half-hour later, indicating Williams was still at the store.

At trial, however, Robinson testified that Williams was in fact at Leoma Chmielewski's house, where he had apparently been invited in. The remarks to the contrary were merely to dissuade Williams's brother, Mark, who had arrived at the Samuels residence, from looking for Williams.

Robinson eventually told Mark where Williams was, and the two of them went over to Leoma's house where Mark prevailed upon his brother to return some money. Mark left and Robinson went back to Samuels' house. Samuels sent Robinson back over to ask Williams to return to the Samuels residence. Williams' responses were to tell Robinson he was not ready to leave and to call Samuels and tell him to mind his own business.

Samuels, Nicholson, and Robinson were driving down the Samuels driveway around 10:30 p.m. when Samuels saw Williams and Chmielewski at her door.

They honked the horn, but Williams motioned for the car to proceed without him. When Nicholson and Samuels returned, a little over an hour later, Nicholson went across the street to find that the door was open and Leoma's body was on the floor. Nicholson returned to the Samuels residence, whereupon Samuels called Williams's mother's home, then the police.

When the police arrived, at approximately 1:00 a.m., January 21, 1983, they found not only the body, but also several coins scattered near the doorway, numerous bank envelopes throughout the house and down to the street corner, Leoma's purse with its contents emptied on the bedroom closet shelf, Leoma's false teeth on the floor next to the body, and the phone off the hook.

A subsequent police investigation revealed an imprint on the hem of the nightgown Leoma was wearing which matched a portion of a shoe Williams was wearing the day of his arrest. Williams' jacket sleeve cuff also contained a trace of lead powder.

In addition to the above evidence, the state presented two witnesses who were former cellmates of Williams while he was confined to the Cuyahoga County Jail pending trial.

Michael Anderson and Navarro Brooks each testified that Williams had told them he had murdered Leoma. Specifically, Anderson testified that Williams had said he "stuck the gun in her mouth" to get her "to shut up." Brooks testified that Williams was worried about blood on his shoes apparently from rolling Leoma's body over with his foot. After this testimony, the state rested, as did the Williams, without presenting any evidence.

The jury found Williams guilty of aggravated murder and the accompanying specification of having committed the aggravated murder in the course of committing an aggravated robbery, for which the death penalty could be imposed. The jury also found Williams guilty of aggravated robbery as well as a firearms charge.

On October 13, 1983, the sentencing phase of the trial commenced. Williams presented three witnesses, his father, sister, and a friend, in addition to making an unsworn statement on his own behalf. The evidence in mitigation was essentially: that Williams was relatively young (twenty-four); that he came from a broken home; that he loved his mother more than himself, but that she rejected him; and that he elected to pursue a life of crime in order to compensate for a lack of love during his childhood.

After more than twenty-three hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict, finding beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the factors offered in mitigation, and sentencing Williams to death.

This conviction and sentence were affirmed by both the trial court and the court of appeals, after each made an independent determination that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating factors.

On appeal, Williams' attorneys claim he is mentally retarded and should not be executed. The Ohio Attorney General's office strongly disputes the assertion that Lewis is mentally retarded. Jim Canepa, who supervises Attorney General Jim Petro's capital-crimes section, says Williams' claims of mental retardation are a false use of the Supreme Court's ruling.

Earlier this year, Williams wrote a 62-page brief that has been filed with the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals. The document asserts his innocence, saying that he received "ineffective assistance and representation of trial counsel in violation of the 5th, 6th and 14th amendments to the United States Constitution."

Canepa claims Williams' ability to write the brief shows that Williams is not mentally retarded. Earlier this year, the Ohio Parole Board unanimously recommended against clemency for Williams, saying his claim of innocence is not credible.

Ohio Executes Condemned Killer

Williams Faced Death Penalty Following Woman's Murder.

NBC4Columbus.com

January 14, 2004

LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- Convicted killer Lewis Williams, struggling with guards and pleading for his life until the last moment, was executed Wednesday morning for the 1983 fatal robbery of a Cleveland woman.

Williams continued to profess his innocence even as he was carried into the death chamber by four guards. "I'm not guilty. I'm not guilty. God, please help me," Williams said as he was strapped to the execution table. He continued to cry out as his mother, Bonnie Williams, sobbed in a room separated by windows from the death chamber. He kept pleading even in his final official statement, given at 10:07 a.m. "God, please help me. God, please hear my cry," Williams said.

Williams continued to cry out even after warden James Haviland pulled the microphone away. Williams continued yelling until 10:08 a.m. when he abruptly stopped speaking. His chest rose and fell a couple of times. Haviland ordered the curtains drawn at 10:14 a.m. for the Scioto County coroner to determine that Williams was dead.

For the first time, witnesses saw members of the execution team insert the needles that will deliver the lethal drugs into an inmate's arms. The decision by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to allow the process to be viewed settles a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in September, said prisons system director Reginald Wilkinson. "We thought it wouldn't hurt anything to experiment with doing this," he said. A camera broadcast the insertion to two video monitors in the witness rooms next to the death chamber.

It took several members of the execution team to carry a struggling Williams into the preparation room, as seen on the monitors. At least nine guards had to restrain Williams at various points as they prepared his arms and inserted needles. Williams, 45, repeatedly shook his head and tried to lift himself off the preparation bed. He yelled several times, then would rest his head and speak quietly, appearing to whisper at points and chant at other points. "It was an awful thing to watch," said Stephen Ferrell, an assistant state public defender. "The struggle caught us by surprise. He didn't seem to be like that this morning."

Prison officials wanted to serve convicted killer Williams a special meal. Williams, who has proclaimed his innocence, chose only "God's word." Williams was the first Ohio inmate whose mental retardation claim was rejected to be executed.

Williams spent Tuesday trying to challenge the constitutionality of how inmates are executed in Ohio. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Williams' request to stay his execution. "He's at the end of his appeals," Ohio attorney general spokeswoman Kim Norris said. Williams arrived at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville about 10 a.m. Tuesday, said Andrea Dean, prison system spokeswoman. He was being held in a cell next to the execution chamber. Williams declined to select a last meal, referred to as a "special meal" by prison officials. When asked what he wanted on two separate occasions Tuesday, he replied, "God's word," Dean said.

Williams stayed up until about 1 a.m. Wednesday doing legal work and reading his Bible, Dean said. He woke briefly about 3:30 a.m., then was awakened by prison officials at 6 a.m. who offered breakfast, which he declined, she said. He had only orange juice. He took a shower and met with Farrell, his spiritual adviser, Charles Morgan, and his mother, Bonnie Williams of Columbus.

He was told of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Wednesday morning, Dean said. She said he has stopped working on appeals. "He understands it's coming down for the time to prepare to be executed," Dean said. Williams had not requested witnesses but changed his mind after meeting with his mother. Farrell, Morgan and his mother will all watch, Dean said.

Dorothy Beverly, the stepdaughter of his victim, Leoma Chmielewski, had planned to witness Wednesday's execution but could not make the trip from her home in Cleveland, Dean said. About 20 death penalty opponents carried signs outside the prison protesting the execution. "I don't agree with the death penalty," said Erin Anderson, 20, one of seven University of Dayton students outside the prison. "It comes down to the fact that innocent people have been killed."

Williams maintained his innocence last month in a death row interview with The Associated Press at Mansfield Correctional Institution. "I wasn't there. I didn't do it," Williams said. "I'm a victim of a miscarriage of justice because I'm completely innocent."

Prosecutors say Williams changed his story several times about his involvement, including one statement that his gun went off while fighting with Chmielewski's dog. Chmielewski was slain during a robbery at her east side Cleveland home on Jan. 21, 1983.

Williams was scheduled to be executed in June, but it was delayed after Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Janet Burnside allowed him to present his claim that he was mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court two years ago ruled that executing the mentally retarded was unconstitutional. Burnside later rejected Williams' claim after an expert hired by his attorneys determined he is not mentally retarded. Both the Ohio Parole Board and Gov. Bob Taft rejected Williams' requests for clemency in June.

Williams Execution Timeline

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- 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 first inmate to struggle since Ohio resumed executions in 1999.

-- 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 first time in nine 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 seven 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.

Ohio executes Lewis Williams for 1983 slaying

By Damian Guevara - Cleveland Plain Dealer

January 14, 2004

LUCASVILLE - Four prison guards carried a tearful and unwilling Lewis Williams Jr. into an execution chamber Wednesday morning as the condemned Cleveland man begged for divine intervention to spare him from death. When the prison crew strapped the reluctant man onto a padded metal gurney, he cried out: "I'm not guilty, I'm not guilty. God, please help me, I didn't commit these crimes."

Williams' desperate pleas sounded just after 10 a.m. inside a dimly lit room at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where he was given a lethal injection. It was just short of 21 years since Williams, 45, killed 76-year-old Leoma Chmielewski of Cleveland.

Just before the execution, the prison's warden asked Williams whether he cared to make a last statement. "God, please help me," the small, balding man moaned. "God, please hear my cry." Standing behind a window about five feet away, William's mother, Bonnie, 66, wept and leaned against the glass. Her son did not turn to face her but kept his eyes closed and his head back as he lay on the death bed. Williams continued pleading for mercy until he finally fell silent, overwhelmed by the drugs in his system.

After seven minutes of silence, Warden James S. Haviland fixed the time of death at 10:15 a.m.

Killer Begs for Life as He's Carried to Execution Chamber

TheDeathHouse.com

January 14, 2004

LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- A man convicted of murdering an elderly woman during a robbery in Cleveland was executed by lethal injection Wednesday after pleading for his life, crying out and being carried into the death chamber by four guards. "God, please help me. God, please hear my cry," Lewis Williams reportedly said. Williams had claimed to be innocent of the murder. As he was being strapped to the execution gurney, Williams cried out: "I'm not guilty. I'm not guilty. God, please help me."

The Associated Press reported that the warden of the prison later pulled the microphone, used for Williams' last statement, away from Williams and the lethal injection began. Williams was pronounced dead at 10: a.m., ending a nearly 21-year quest by the state to execute him.

Williams, 45, was convicted of the murder of Leoma Chmielewski, 76. She was found beaten and shot in the face on Jan. 20, 1983 inside her home.

Williams had been in the neighborhood at the time of the murder and admitted being at her home the night Chmielewski was killed. However, he denied killing Chmielewski.

Williams, along with two friends, had gone to the neighborhood to visit a cousin, who lived across the street from the victim. Williams was seen talking with Chmielewski outside her door an hour before her body was found. His shoeprint was also found on the victim's night gown.

Flip-Flopping Over Execution

Williams was the first condemned killer put to death in Ohio in 2004. Williams' date with death became a reality when a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims that lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment. The Ohio Supreme Court had postponed Williams' scheduled June 24 execution, based on a claim by his attorney that Williams is mentally retarded.

No Retardation

A Cuyahoga County trial judge held a hearing on June 23, the day before Williams was to be executed, to determine if he was mentally retarded. Williams had sent a letter to the court asking that he be allowed to withdraw the retardation claim and fire his lawyers. Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Williams was mentally retarded. An evaluation of Williams found no evidence of mental retardation The Ohio Supreme Court had flip-flopped over whether to allow the execution of Williams. Williams also had been scheduled for execution April 15, 2003.

'Lack Of Love'

The key pieces of evidence presented by prosecutors against Williams included: traces of lead particles found on a jacket sleeve cuff, indicating he had fired a gun; a shoe print found on the victim's nightgown matching Williams' shoe; and testimony from two cellmates at the county jail who claimed that Williams had admitted to them that he killed the woman.

One testified that Williams told him he had stuck a gun in the victim's mouth to get her to "shut up." The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Williams was on parole for robbery at the time of the slaying and that Williams sometimes did odd jobs for the elderly woman. Ohio Supreme Court documents stated that Williams' lawyer presented no evidence at the trial.

However, during mitigation, after Williams had been found guilty of murder and aggravated robbery, the lawyer, in an attempt to stave off a death sentence, cited Williams' age at the time of the murder (24).

He also said Williams, who loved his mother, had been rejected by her and "elected to pursue a life of crime" in order to compensate for lack of love during his childhood. The "lack of love" defense did not move jurors.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Lewis Williams, Jr., OH - Jan. 14, 10:00 AM EST

The state of Ohio is scheduled to execute Lewis Williams, Jr., a black man, Jan. 14 for the 1983 robbery and murder of Leona Chmielewski, in Cleveland. The execution is scheduled for 10:00 AM EST. Like many indigent defendants, Mr. Williams received ineffective assistance at trial from his court-appointed attorneys. Furthermore, the jury did not receive accurate sentencing instructions.

The defense did not, or could not, hire experts to examine the material evidence present. Two key prosecution witnesses were coerced into testifying; one, Mr. Williams’s cousin, was told that his house would be seized if he did not cooperate because of a prior arrest for marijuana possession, and the second, a jailhouse informant, received a reduced sentence for his testimony.

Specifically, Mr. Williams claimed that his attorneys failed to obtain pertinent background and mitigating information on him by neglecting to interview family members other than his father and his sister, and by neglecting to request school and juvenile facility records relevant to his psycho-social development; that his attorneys failed to prepare witnesses for the testimony they were to give during the sentencing phase of his trial; and that his attorneys failed to request the appointment of a psychological expert who could comment on his psycho-social development and the mitigating circumstances that resulted.

If they had done adequate mitigation research, they would have found that Mr. Williams’s mother chose a string of abusive partners and he would often witness her being beaten, once to the point of hospitalization. His biological father, a drug-dealer, beat him as often as three or four times per week with a belt, a switch and an extension cord. Williams ran away from home at age nine, beginning an odyssey into the juvenile justice system and was using drugs as serious as cocaine by age 13. He was sexually abused as a child, and prostituted himself to men as a teenager.

Furthermore, the jury was told that their sentencing decision was not final; that they were only “recommending” death or life, when in fact their decision, in practice, was binding. Thurgood Marshall, in a similar Supreme Court case, argued that jurors must be aware of the ramifications of their decision… “jurors, confronted with the truly awesome responsibility of decreeing death for a fellow human, will act with due regard for the consequences of their decision.” Mr. Williams’s request for re-sentencing, however, was denied.

Lewis Williams, Jr. is a textbook example of abuse, abandonment and neglect their contribution to violent crime. It costs, on average, 38 percent more to prosecute a defendant to his or her death than it does to keep them in prison for life. That money is poorly used in the pursuit of vengeance. Schools, youth programs and gang-prevention, psychological services for indigent children, and an investment in child protection is by far the most effective crime prevention.

Ohio has executed eight people since 1999, when executions resumed after a 36-year break. In that time, crime has continued to rise dramatically, with Cincinnati moving from the 27th to the 9th highest national homicide rate and Cleveland boasting three times the national rate of homicide.

After 21 years on death row and countless legal appeals, Lewis Williams, Jr. is scheduled to be Ohio’s ninth person executed in modern history. Please write Gov. Taft and urge him to declare a moratorium on executions, commute the death sentence of Mr. Williams, and reallocate the much needed money into education and other child-protective services.

Williams executed by Ohio even while struggling with guards

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins - Akron Beacon Journal

AP - January 14, 2004

LUCASVILLE, Ohio - A convicted killer struggled with guards and shouted for God's help Wednesday before the state executed him for the death of a woman during a robbery. The execution team had to forcibly lift Lewis Williams from his knees and pry his hand off the edge of a table next door to the death chamber. It was the first time in nine executions since the state resumed the practice in 1999 that an inmate has struggled with guards. Williams was the first Ohio inmate executed after a claim of mental retardation was rejected.

The execution process, the first that allowed witnesses to see the shunts placed in a condemned inmates' arms, left witnesses shaken. "It was an awful thing to watch," said Stephen Ferrell, an assistant state public defender. Reginald Wilkinson, Ohio's prisons director, called it disturbing and traumatic.

Williams' peaceful mood while reading the Bible and talking with his lawyer in the hours before his death disappeared when the execution process began at 9:51 a.m.

Williams, 45, professed his innocence even as he was carried into the death chamber by four guards. "I'm not guilty. I'm not guilty. God, please help me," Williams said as he was strapped to the execution table.

The diminutive Williams was 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 117 pounds, according to prison officials. Williams continued to cry out as his mother, Bonnie Williams, 66, of Columbus, sobbed in a room separated by windows from the death chamber.

He kept pleading even in his final official statement, given at 10:07 a.m. "God, please help me. God, please hear my cry," Williams said. Williams' yells continued after warden James Haviland pulled the microphone away.

Williams continued yelling until 10:08 a.m. when he abruptly stopped speaking. His chest rose and fell a couple times. He was declared dead at 10:15 a.m., executed for shooting Leoma Chmielewski, 76, in the face during a robbery in her Cleveland home in 1983.

Williams also professed his innocence in a death row interview with The Associated Press last month. Williams said he was in Chmielewski's house the night she died but said he left before she was killed. He disputed evidence presented against him, including a footprint on the victim's nightgown that matched his shoe and evidence of gun residue on a jacket found at his mother's house the day he was arrested.

The decision by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to allow the process to be viewed settles a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in September, Wilkinson said.

Officials will review what happened with Williams, Wilkinson said. "It was probably as traumatic as anything our staff has gone through," he said. He said he doesn't like broadcasting the preparation. "Whether his resistance was genuine or not, it creates an opportunity to do things differently than was done before," Wilkinson said.

It took several members of the execution team to carry a struggling Williams into the preparation room, as seen on two monitors in the witness room next to the death chamber. At least nine guards had to restrain Williams at various points as they prepared his arms and inserted needles.

Williams repeatedly shook his head and tried to lift himself off the preparation bed. He yelled several times, then would rest his head and speak quietly, appearing to whisper at points and chant at other points. One guard standing at his head alternately restrained him and patted his right shoulder to comfort him.

In 1999, a problem inserting an injection needle into Wilford Berry's right arm delayed Ohio's first execution since 1963 for more than 20 minutes. Williams tried unsuccessfully to challenge the constitutionality of how inmates are executed in Ohio. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected his request to stay his execution.

Williams was scheduled to be executed in June, but it was delayed after Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Janet Burnside allowed him to present his claim that he was mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court two years ago ruled that executing the mentally retarded was unconstitutional. Burnside later rejected Williams' mental retardation claim after an expert hired by his attorneys determined he is not mentally retarded.

State Executes Williams Despite Controversy Over Lethal Injection Drug

Ohio Public Defender

January 14, 2004

(Columbus)—At 10 a.m. today, the State of Ohio executed Lewis Williams by lethal injection, despite an ongoing controversy over one of the drugs used in Ohio’s lethal injection protocol.

Ohio’s lethal injection protocol includes a paralyzing agent, pancuronium bromide, that could leave the inmate conscious before death, but cast a chemical veil over the excruciatingly painful effects of death by suffocation and heart attack.

On Dec. 31, 2003, the Office of the Ohio Public Defender filed a complaint in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, arguing that Ohio’s use of pancuronium bromide violates inmates’ constitutional rights. Federal appeals courts in Virginia and Alabama have delayed executions based on similar arguments.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the complaint on Jan. 12. The following day, the Public Defender requested that all 12 judges review the case. The 6th Circuit Court later rejected Williams’ request to stay the execution, as did the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote.

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently hearing an appeal from an Alabama death row inmate, who argues that execution by lethal injection would be unconstitutionally cruel because he suffers from collapsed veins.

"Lewis Williams’ execution should have been delayed while the U.S. Supreme Court hears the Alabama case," argued Stephen Ferrell, an assistant state public defender representing Williams. "There has been a lack of consistency in the federal courts’ rulings on this issue. Why do inmates in some states get to present their claims, while others do not?"

During the execution procedure, Williams struggled with guards and professed his innocence. At one point, nine guards had to restrain Williams, who was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 117 pounds. Reginald Wilkinson, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, described the execution as "disturbing" and "traumatic."

The State Public Defender’s office will continue to pursue the pancuronium bromide complaint on behalf of Plaintiff John Glenn Roe, who is scheduled to be executed on Feb. 3.

Press Release 12/31/03

Ohio’s Execution Procedures Not Fit for a Dog

Today the Office of the Ohio Public Defender filed a Complaint in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging the violation of constitutional rights of two death-row inmates. Plaintiff Lewis Williams Jr. is scheduled to be executed on January 14, 2004, and Plaintiff John Glenn Roe is scheduled to be executed on February 3, 2004. The litigation brought on their behalf seeks to suspend the executions.

The Complaint alleges that Ohio’s lethal injection protocol violates the inmates’constitutional rights by executing them with drugs that include a paralyzing agent veterinarians will not use for the euthanasia of cats and dogs. This paralyzing drug casts a chemical veil over the excruciatingly painful effects of death by suffocation and heart attack. Ohio’s lethal injection protocol includes an unreliable ultrashort-acting anesthetic that can leave the condemned inmate conscious but trapped in a paralyzed body wracked with the pain of suffocation and a heart attack.

The inmates seek a preliminary and permanent injunction preventing the state from executing them by the means currently employed for carrying out an execution by lethal injection in the state of Ohio—the only method of execution used in Ohio. This method of execution violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment.

Ohio’s lethal injection protocol involves administering three drugs: thiopental sodium, pancuronium bromide (paralyzing agent), and potassium chloride.

Mark J.S. Heath of New York, a medical doctor board certified in anesthesiology, maintains that "Ohio’s lethal injection protocol creates an unacceptable risk that the inmate will not be anesthetized to the point of being unconscious and unaware of pain for the duration of the execution procedure. If the inmate is not first successfully anesthetized . . . the pancuronium will paralyze all voluntary muscles and mask external, physical indications of the excruciating pain being experienced by the inmate during the process of suffocating (caused by the pancuronium) and having a cardiac arrest (caused by the potassium chloride)."

Dr. Heath’s opinion is corroborated by the experience of Carol Weihrer. According to Weiher’s affidavit, she underwent eye surgery. The sedative she received was ineffectual and left her conscious during the entire surgery. Because of the administration of a neuromuscular blocking agent like pancuronium bromide, however, she was unable to indicate her consciousness and horrific pain to the doctor removing her eyeball for surgical repair: "I therefore experienced what has come to be known as Anesthesia Awareness, in which I was able to think lucidly, hear, perceive and feel everything that was going on during the surgery, but I was unable to move. It burnt like the fires of hell. It was the most terrifying, torturous experience you can imagine. The experience was worse than death."

Furthermore, the Complaint alleges, the state fails to provide rational, reliable directions or standards for the requisite training, education, and expertise of the personnel who carry out executions by lethal injection.

Click here for a copy of relevant pleadings posted on the Ohio Public Defender website.

State v. Williams, Not Reported in N.E.2d (Ohio App. 8 Dist. 1996)

Defendant-appellant, Lewis Williams, Jr., appeals from the denial of his fifth petition for post-conviction relief ("PCR Petition").

On November 16, 1983, defendant was convicted of aggravated murder with robbery and firearm specifications and sentenced to death. This court affirmed defendant's conviction and sentence. State v. Williams (Nov. 5, 1984), Cuyahoga App. No. 47853, unreported. The Ohio Supreme Court rejected his twenty assignments of error on direct appeal and affirmed his conviction and sentence. State v. Williams (1986), 23 Ohio St.3d 16. The United States Supreme Court denied defendant's petition for certiorari. Williams v. Ohio (1987), 480 U.S. 923 Defendant thereafter filed pro se in the common pleas court two petitions for post-conviction relief ("PCR Petitions") in 1986. The trial court denied defendant's two pro se PCR Petitions and defendant did not appeal from the denial of either of these two PCR Petitions.

Defendant, represented by the State Public Defender, thereafter filed the following additional proceedings, viz.: (1) three successive PCR Petitions; (2) a public records mandamus action; and (3) a motion for delayed reopening of defendant's direct appeal. This court of appeals affirmed the denial of defendant's third PCR Petition. State v. Williams (1991), 74 Ohio App.3d 686. The Ohio Supreme Court denied further review. State v. Williams (1991), 62 Ohio St.3d 1463 Defendant filed his fourth PCR Petition, the denial of which this court affirmed in State v. Williams (Apr. 1, 1993), Cuyahoga App. No. 62066, unreported.

The Ohio Supreme Court denied further review. State v. Williams (1993), 67 Ohio St.3d 1464. During the pendency of the fourth PCR Petition, defendant filed a public records mandamus action. This court granted the writ of mandamus in part and denied the writ in part. State of Ohio ex rel. Williams v. Cleveland (Dec. 24, 1992), Cuyahoga App. No. 61762, unreported. Defendant did not seek further review of this court's disposition of his mandamus action. Defendant filed a motion to delay reopening his direct appeal. This court of appeals denied the motion. State v. Williams (Nov. 5, 1984), Cuyahoga App. No. 47853, unreported, reopening disallowed (Mar. 22, 1995), Motion No. 57150. Defendant's request for review is pending in the Ohio Supreme Court as of the date of this opinion. Defendant filed a sixty-page fifth PCR Petition sub judice on July 10, 1992.

* * *

Case remanded to the trial court for execution of sentence.

State v. Williams, Not Reported in N.E.2d (Ohio App. 8 Dist. 1993)

Appellant, Lewis Williams, appeals from the order of the trial court denying his petition for post-conviction relief. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

On October 7, 1983, Williams was tried in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas and found guilty by a jury on one count of aggravated murder in violation of R.C. 2903.01, and the accompanying specification under R.C. 2929.04(A)(7) On October 16, 1983, the jury recommended that Williams be sentenced to death. On November 16, 1983, the trial court accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced Williams to death. The convictions and sentence were affirmed by this court. State v. Williams (October 25, 1984), Cuyahoga App. No. 47853, unreported. The convictions and sentence were also affirmed by the Ohio Supreme Court. State v. Williams (1986), 23 Ohio St.3d 16, 490 N.E.2d 906. Williams was denied certiorari to the United States Supreme Court.

On April 4, 1986 and June 27, 1986, Williams filed pro se petitions for post- conviction relief which were denied. On November 20, 1987, Williams, through counsel, filed a petition for post- conviction relief in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. In October, 1989, the trial court denied Williams petition. That denial was affirmed by this court. State v. Williams (1991), 74 Ohio App.3d 686

On August 31, 1990, Williams, through counsel, filed an additional petition for post-conviction relief in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. This petition was denied without hearing on June 3, 1991. This appeal timely follows. Judgment affirmed.