The board members also voted that Mr. Williams - who raped, robbed and murdered 16-year-old Aleta Bunch on March 4, 1986, in Richmond County - will never spend another day outside a prison cell.

In commuting Mr. Williams' death sentence to life without the possibility of parole, board members reported they relied on the findings of three Grady Memorial Hospital psychiatrists who examined Mr. Williams, now 33, last week.

"We have the deepest sympathy for the family of Aleta Bunch and especially for her mother, Mrs. Carolyn Bunch. The pain and devastation that Williams caused this family can never be eased. By making sure that Williams will remain in an (8-by-10) prison cell for the rest of his life with absolutely no hope for parole, we hope that the certainty of our decision will give Mrs. Bunch the closure she so deserves," board Chairman Walter Ray said.

Hundreds of individuals weighed in before the board made its decision Monday. While many, including the victim's mother, urged the board to reject clemency, many others asked for mercy, including the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, National Mental Health Association and European Union.

As news spread of the board's decision just after 3 p.m. Monday, the responses began.

"The good judgment of the Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Williams' death sentence - in light of his age at the time of the crime (17) and his questionable mental competency due to severe schizophrenia - is brave and in keeping with most of the modern world," the news release from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice read.

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker expressed an opposing view in his news release: "Let me begin by expressing my deepest sympathy to the family of Aleta Carol Bunch ... Today, they found out that the justice that they long awaited would not happen. Her killer was given a second chance today, a second chance that Alexander Williams never gave (Aleta) Carol Bunch."

Aleta's mother did not return a telephone message left Monday evening at her Beech Island home, where Aleta grew up.

Five months after Aleta's murder, a Richmond County Superior Court jury convicted Mr. Williams and sentenced him to death. His defense attorney never brought up any evidence of mental illness at trial. He later said having a psychiatrist examine Mr. Williams before trial "would have been a waste of time and money."

At the beginning of his stay on death row, Mr. Williams was diagnosed as exhibiting signs of schizophrenia and was prescribed anti-psychotic medication. At times prison guards have had to hold Mr. Williams down so a nurse could inject drugs.

Among those who wrote to the parole board on Mr. Williams' behalf were five of the jurors who voted in favor of the death sentence. They wouldn't have voted for death if they had known of his mental illness and abusive childhood, they wrote. Just one vote against a death sentence in Georgia means life in prison instead of execution.

Mr. Williams had been set for execution Wednesday night, but the parole board granted a temporarily stay, set to expire at midnight Monday night. He was to be the sixth death row inmate executed since the fall, when executions resumed with lethal injections replacing electrocution.

The commutation means Mr. Williams will be moved off death row within the next few days, a department of corrections spokeswoman said Monday evening. Mr. Williams will be housed in a state maximum-security facility, she said.

OTHER CASES

In other cases Monday: