Augustan gets death row date

Web posted August 12, 2000

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By Sandy Hodson
Staff Writer

An Aug. 24 execution date has been set for Augusta native Alexander Williams, the Department of Corrections announced Friday.

As it stands now, Mr. Williams, 32, will be electrocuted at 7 p.m. Aug. 24 at the state prison in Jackson, where death row is located.

His attorney has until Aug. 21 to ask the Georgia Supreme Court to intervene, and he said Friday that he will do so.

A Richmond County Superior Court sentenced Mr. Williams to die for the March 4, 1986, murder of 16-year-old Aleta Bunch of Beech Island.

Mr. Williams was a few weeks shy of his 18th birthday when he kidnapped Aleta from the Regency Mall parking lot. Four months later, the jury convicted Mr. Williams of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and theft.

``The question remains the same,'' Mr. Williams's attorney Mark Olive wrote to The Augusta Chronicle on Friday. ``Should Georgia execute a helplessly mentally ill person who created a tragedy for others by committing a crime as a minor? The setting of an execution date does not answer this question. It presses the question.''

Mr. Olive wrote that he would ask the Georgia Supreme Court for permission to appeal a decision reached by a state court judge last month. In Butts County Superior Court, which has jurisdiction over those confined on Georgia's death row in Jackson, Judge Byron Smith rejected Mr. Williams' latest attempt to reverse his death sentence.

If the Georgia Supreme Court agrees with Judge Smith's ruling, Mr. Williams only has two possible avenues left - asking the U.S. Supreme Court for permission to appeal, and asking the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute the death sentence to life in prison.

After nearly 14 years, Aleta's mother, Carolyn Bunch, said Friday she will believe the execution will proceed when it actually does.

``Hopefully, they (the Supreme Courts of Georgia and the United States) will turn him down, and we can get this behind us,'' Mrs. Bunch said.

Supreme Court Chief Judge William M. Fleming Jr. signed a death warrant for Mr. Williams on Thursday, setting the window for his execution from Aug. 24 to Aug. 31.

Department of Corrections Commissioner Jim Wetherington set Mr. Williams' execution for Aug. 24.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226.