Five jurors voice reversal of death penalty opinion

Web posted August 23, 2000

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By Sandy Hodson
Staff Writer

If they had known then what they know now, five of the jurors who sentenced Alexander Williams to death in 1986 would have voted for life in prison, they wrote in letters to the state parole board.

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Under state law, even one vote for life in prison in 1986 would have spared Mr. Williams from an execution, which had been scheduled for Thursday.

Mr. Williams, now 32, came within two days of execution before the Georgia Supreme Court issued a stay Tuesday afternoon.

Five of the 12 jurors who sat in judgment of Mr. Williams in a Richmond County Superior Court wrote to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles that they could not understand why they did not learn during the August 1986 trial that Mr. Williams' childhood was marred by repeated abuse and that he is mentally ill. It would have made a difference in their votes, they wrote.

``As much as I regret what happened during those deliberations, I am equally as angry with Mr. (defense attorney O.L.) Collins for not providing us jurors with even one small part of the wealth of information that I now know was available, and which would have made a difference .ƒ.ƒ. ,'' Stephen Dickson wrote.

``Though I was not aware of this information at trial, I did know - even as the trial was ongoing - that Alex's lawyer could not have cared less about his client, and made absolutely no effort to defend him,'' Mr. Dickson wrote.

Mr. Collins, who has died, ``repeatedly referred to Alex as `boy,' and it was clear from his tone that he wasn't referring to Alex's young age. Mr. Collins used the term as an insult denoting that his client was a black man,'' Mr. Dickson wrote.

``Given Mr. Collins loathing attitude toward Alex, it wasn't surprising that most of my fellow jurors started to make up their minds that Alex Williams was guilty .ƒ.ƒ. before we were given the case for deliberations.''

Mr. Williams was a few weeks shy of his 18th birthday when he abducted 16-year-old Aleta Bunch from the Regency Mall parking lot the afternoon of March 4, 1986. None of the five jurors questioned the findings that Mr. Williams not only kidnapped the Beech Island teen-ager, but also robbed and raped her before shooting her in the head and chest. He left her body in a wooded area off of Storey Mill Road in Hephzibah.

``The court asked me to take the case for the purpose of representation by appointment. I took it,'' Mr. Collins told the 1986 jury in his opening statement. Never once did he refer to Mr. Williams by name.

In his closing argument, Mr. Collins finished on this note: ``Do what you will with him. I thank you for your time. Your honor, I thank you for the privilege of serving your court in this matter. It has been a pleasure to me.''

The transcript of Mr. Williams' trial reveals that while the prosecutor was still presenting evidence, a juror wrote Judge William M. Fleming Jr. a note, expressing concern that fellow jurors were violating their oath by discussing the case. Judge Fleming called the jurors into the courtroom, read the note and told them not to discuss the case until deliberations began.

The juror who sent the note was Mr. Dickson, he wrote in his letter to the parole board. He had expected the judge to question jurors or declare a mistrial, neither of which Mr. Collins requested, according to Mr. Dickson and the trial transcript.

Walter Ivey also wrote to the parole board, stating that if he had heard evidence of childhood physical and sexual abuse and mental illness he would not have voted for the death penalty. Johnny Gibbons wrote to the board expressing the same opinion.

``Because of Mr. Williams age at the time of the crime, the history of child abuse, and his mental illness, I believe that it would be cruel and inhuman to execute Mr. Williams,'' Mr. Gibbons wrote.

Lawrence Russell IV wrote the board from his home in Taiwan, telling the parole board that he voted for death with strong reservations but believed there was no appropriate alternative offered. He asked the board to impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226.