Mr. Williams has spent nearly 15 years on Georgia's death row for the March 4, 1986, murder of Aleta Bunch, who was abducted from Regency Mall. A Richmond County Superior Court later that year sentenced him to die.

Chief Judge William M. Fleming Jr. signed an order for Mr. Williams' execution, setting the weeklong window for next week. The corrections commissioner set the execution for 7 p.m. Feb. 20.

Mr. Williams came within two days of execution in August 2000. The Georgia Supreme Court granted him a stay. At the time, the court was wrestling with the constitutionality of the electric chair. The justices declared electrocution cruel and unusual in October, and executions by lethal injection began soon thereafter.

Mr. Williams is the sixth Georgia death row inmate scheduled to die by lethal injection. Since October, no court has interceded on a condemned inmate's behalf, and the state Board of Pardons and Paroles has rejected every request for clemency.

Mr. Williams' attorneys can renew their clemency request but had not done so as of Monday evening. Mr. Williams' lead attorney did not return a telephone call Monday.

Mr. Williams was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and murder in the death of 16-year-old Aleta. When he shot Aleta to death in an isolated wooded area in south Augusta, Mr. Williams was 17 years old.

Aleta's parents, family and friends searched for the Curtis Baptist High School junior for 11 days. Her body was found March 15, 1986. She had been shot four times in the head and once in the chest. Neither her 1984 Ford Mustang nor the murder weapon, a .22-caliber gun, has been found.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or shodson@augustachronicle.com.