News Update 07.21.08
North Carolina
Scott Wilson Williams has entered a plea and been sentenced to three consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole. Williams shot and dismembered three women in the Charlotte area between 1997 and 2006. Two other victims survived. “At first I was shocked about him not receiving the death penalty,” wrote one victim’s daughter, “But I guess God has a plan.”
The North Carolina General Assembly ended its 2008 session last week without passing any major death penalty reforms. Both the Racial Justice Act and a bill intended to protect the severely mentally ill from execution stalled. Representatives Womble and Parmon, chief sponsors of the RJA in the House, blasted their Senate colleagues for failing to pass the bill.
Elsewhere
Elected judgeships affect both composition of bench and voting in capital cases. In other news, sky is blue, water is wet.
Feed your head with a herd of new death penalty-related articles.
[...] DeathWatch North Carolina berichtet über das Scheitern wichtiger Gesetzesreformen, die psychisch schwer kranke Angeklagte vor der Hinrichtung hätten schützen sowie Rassismus bei Kapitalverfahren hätten verhindern können. [...]