R.I.P. Jason Williams

Roman Colosseum lit to protest an execution

On May 19, 2011, Alabama executed Jason Williams for the 1992 shooting deaths of Gerald Paravicini and his neighbors, Freddie, Linda and Bryant Barber.  The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) presented evidence in support of clemency which showed that "Williams was deeply remorseful for this tragic offense, which occurred when he was a 23-year-old with no criminal history who had ingested a large quantity of LSD and crack cocaine."  Williams' drug dependency began at an early age to cope with the extraordinarily brutal abuse he suffered at the hands of his father and then at the notorious Bethel Children’s Home in Mississippi.  Williams' drug addiction escalated when, at the age of 18, he learned that the woman he believed was his mother was his aunt who had taken him in after his mother had abandoned him.  The jury that sentenced Williams to death never knew of the abuse and trauma he suffered because his lawyers did not investigate and present it.  As EJI stated, "despite learning about the peaceful, hardworking, and respectful man Mr. Williams became in prison, the governor denied clemency, and Jason Williams was put to death."

Williams was executed with a new drug protocol that prison officials substituted and refused to disclose after their supply of lethal-injection drugs was confiscated by the DEA.  Williams is the 18th  person executed in the United States in 2011, the third in Alabama.