Alexander Williams

Alexander Williams

Posted on February 26, 2002

Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and a victim of child abuse, Alexander Williams was sentenced to die by lethal injection for a crime committed while actively psychotic. Just hours before the Feb. 25th expiration of his temporary stay of execution, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.

On February 20, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a five day temporary stay hours before Williams' scheduled execution to review evidence about Mr. Williams severe mental illness and other factors related to his case. Mr. Williams is so ill that the State felt compelled to obtain a standing involuntary medication order so that he could be kept competent for execution. The Board called in three independent psychiatrists to examine Mr. Williams and report their findings to the Board.

On February 25, the Board commuted Mr. Williams sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

NAMI, along with the American Bar Association and others, had pleaded for clemency for Mr. Williams for the last two years