Post by CCADP on Aug 2, 2005 8:14:40 GMT -5
AP State News
August 02. 2005 12:32AM
Lawyers argue death row inmate not eligible for execution
The Associated Press
Defense lawyers say death row inmate Larry Darnell Williams is mentally retarded and does not deserve the death penalty for the shooting death of a convenience store clerk.
Williams has been on death row 25 years.
Superior Court Judge Tim Patti heard evidence Monday after he ordered in 2002 that Williams be retested for retardation. A state law that took effect in 2001 forbids the execution of killers with an IQ of less than 70 who have shown early signs of non-coping skills.
If Patti finds Williams retarded, the death row inmate's sentence could be changed to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Patti did not indicate when he would rule.
The defense also plans to raise a claim that that prosecutors withheld impeaching evidence about a witness at the time of Williams' 1980 trial, said defense attorney Mary Ann Tally.
"It has to do with information about the only witness, according to the trial judge, that got the case to the jury," Tally said.
Cabarrus County jurors sentenced Williams to death in February 1980 for the shooting death of Susan Verle Pierce, who was robbed while working at a convenience store in Concord.
That sentence was later overturned. Four months later, Gaston County jurors convicted Williams of first-degree murder in the 1979 robbery and shooting death of Eric Joines, a 20-year-old gas station attendant. Pierce and Joines were killed on the same day.
Williams, who turns 51 this month, has now been on North Carolina's death row 25 years, longer than any other current inmate after Norris Taylor, convicted in New Hanover County in 1979.
Patti issued Williams' second stay of execution after state legislators passed a law prohibiting the execution of mentally retarded people. In 1979, Williams' IQ tested at 69, considered borderline for mental retardation. He tested at 91 on a different test a year later.
Joyce Hinson, sister of Susan Pierce, said she doesn't think Williams is retarded.
"I think he's trying to get off death row," said Hinson, who attended the hearing. "I'm hoping that they will finish now and do what they're going to do, whether they are going to execute him or have him never ever get out of prison."
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Information from: The Gaston Gazette,