softheart
07-06-2004, 01:35 PM
Governor spares life of inmate
Convicted killer of Gary couple was to be executed next week
From Gov. Kernan's statement
Here are some excerpts from Gov. Joe Kernan's written statement on his
decision regarding the Darnell Williams case:
• "I do not find evidence regarding Willliams' upbringing to lend much
weight to his claim for clemency, but I view the evidence of Williams'
mental status somewhat differently. Williams' IQ has been measured at 78
and 81, and he attended special education classes throughout his schooling.
. . . Williams' mental status weighs as a factor in the clemency decision."
• "Clemency is an appropriate method to adjuust sentences of persons
involved in the same crime to obtain a just result based on relative
culpability. The record is clear that (Gregory) Rouster is more culpable in
this case. Stealing from the Reases was his idea in the first place, and
his fingerprints are on the goods removed from the home but not carried
away from the site."
• "I have found no instance in whichh Indiana has executed a defendant
where a more culpable co-defendant's life was spared. The principle of
proportional sentencing is deeply rooted in our legal system."
• "It is impossible to know who fired thee weapons that killed the Reases.
There is evidence indicating that Williams did so. There also is evidence
indicating that Rouster, alone or in combination with someone else,
committed the murders. It is unwise to impose the sentence of death in
these particular circumstances, with doubt as to Williams' direct
participation."
Indianapolis Star By Mary Beth Schneider and Theodore Kim
July 3, 2004
Gov. Joe Kernan commuted the death sentence of Darnell Williams on Friday
-- the first time in almost 50 years that an Indiana governor has spared
the life of a condemned killer.
Williams, 37, was to have died by lethal injection July 9 for the 1986
murders of John and Henrietta Rease, of Gary.
Instead, he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, without the
possibility of parole.
Williams' mother, Shirley Williams Greer, was working at a Hammond
riverboat casino when she learned from an Indianapolis Star reporter that
her son would not be executed.
She said in a near-whisper: "Thank God, thank God, thank God."
"Knew it," she said, her voice growing stronger. "All my co-workers said,
'Don't worry.' Prayer works. I'm happy. Very, very happy. My firstborn is
off Death Row. And now we get to fight another fight: getting him released."
That, however, is unlikely.
In his decision, Kernan, a Democrat, followed both the June 29 unanimous
recommendation of the five-member Indiana Parole Board and Williams' own
request to put him behind bars for the rest of his life.
No other governor has granted a Death Row inmate clemency since Gov. George
Craig, a Republican, did so for a man and a woman in separate cases in
1956. And no other parole board has recommended clemency since Indiana
restored the death penalty in 1977.
Eleven men have been executed since.
Williams and Gregory Rouster, one of the Reases' foster children, were
sentenced to death in 1987.
Williams has said he went with Rouster and two others to the couple's home
the night of the slayings but didn't know a robbery was planned. He said he
was drunk and blacked out before the Reases were shot.
Rouster and Williams were the only two who were charged with murder.
A Lake Superior Court judge ruled in June 2003 that Rouster, now known as
Gamba Rastafari, could not be executed because he is mentally retarded.
Kernan had been urged to break with history not only by Williams' family
but by friends of the Reases, the Lake County attorney who had prosecuted
Williams, and six of the 12 jurors who had convicted him.
The Reases' former pastor, Rev. R.T. Mitchell of New Revelation Baptist
Church in Gary, called Kernan's order "a wise decision."
"It was the right thing to do," he said. "And I believe that the governor
believes it was the right thing to do. It gives everybody a sense of
release. Now that both (Williams and Rouster) are serving life sentences, I
think pressure has been lifted from some who felt like, 'if one is spared,
both should be spared.' "
But he said Williams should remain in prison unless "substantial" evidence
in the future shows he was not involved.
Williams' attorney, Juliet Yackel, called Kernan's decision "the
appropriate course of action."
"He is thrilled," she said. "What he has been saying is: 'Faith is
everything to me.' It has taken him through this process, whatever the
outcome was going to be. We're very happy he'll be around to see another day."
And his stepfather, Nathaniel Greer, said: "I thought the whole thing was
wrong. Darnell needed a second chance."
In a written statement explaining his decision, Kernan -- a supporter of
the death penalty -- said Williams' was a unique case.
He cited Williams' low IQ -- just above the cut-off at which the U.S.
Supreme Court "has imposed a hard and fast rule" barring execution. That
rule spared Williams' co-defendant, Rouster.
"The record is clear that Rouster is more culpable in this case," Kernan
wrote in his clemency statement. "Those who bear the most responsibility
for a crime should pay the highest penalty. Because Rouster cannot be
executed for the crime, it is unjust for Williams to be executed."
Kernan also said the record shows there are doubts about Williams' role in
the slayings.
In a Parole Board hearing two weeks ago in Michigan City, where Williams is
being held, Williams maintained his innocence, saying: "These hands are not
bloody."
Williams said he regained consciousness after he was arrested.
Police found him shortly after the slayings with $232 and a .30-caliber
bullet in his pockets -- a bullet Yackel said did not match those that
killed the couple. And though the guns were found, they did not have
Williams' fingerprints on them.
Williams was only four days away from being put to death on Aug. 1, 2003,
when Gov. Frank O'Bannon halted the execution to allow time for DNA testing
of blood on Williams' clothing. Those tests showed that the blood did not
come from Henrietta Rease and results were inconclusive for John Rease's blood.
The Indiana Supreme Court ruled the tests did not rule out Williams as a
suspect and said there was overwhelming evidence of his guilt in refusing
to halt the execution.
Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter -- whose office had argued against
clemency -- declined to comment Friday on Kernan's decision.
Kernan was on his way to his South Bend home at 1 p.m. Friday, to prepare
for three days of Independence Day festivities he is attending statewide,
when his office released his written decision.
He would, spokesman Jonathan Swain said, have no further public comment on
it at this time.
Kernan took over as governor when O'Bannon died on Sept. 13. He is now
running for his first full term for office against Republican nominee Mitch
Daniels.
On Friday, a spokesman for Daniels' campaign, Marc Lotter, said Daniels
will not make Kernan's decision a political issue.
"Mitch knows the governor made the decision in good conscience," Lotter
said. While Daniels does not know all the facts of this case, Lotter said,
"he trusts Kernan's judgment."
And he added: "Let me just emphatically say now this will not be a
political issue and Mitch doesn't want to catch anyone raising it."
Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Kip Tew, as well as Kernan's campaign,
declined to comment.
State Rep. Luke Messer, a Shelbyville Republican who is executive director
of the Indiana Republican Party, said he backs the death penalty but didn't
know enough about Williams' case to judge whether Kernan made the right
decision.
"I know there has been a lot of political pressure in an election year," he
said. "Voters who are strong supporters of the death penalty will have to
decide if it is a unique circumstance or a trend of how (Kernan) will govern."
Robin Winston, former chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, said anyone
familiar with Kernan knows "he simply would not make a rash decision.
Convicted killer of Gary couple was to be executed next week
From Gov. Kernan's statement
Here are some excerpts from Gov. Joe Kernan's written statement on his
decision regarding the Darnell Williams case:
• "I do not find evidence regarding Willliams' upbringing to lend much
weight to his claim for clemency, but I view the evidence of Williams'
mental status somewhat differently. Williams' IQ has been measured at 78
and 81, and he attended special education classes throughout his schooling.
. . . Williams' mental status weighs as a factor in the clemency decision."
• "Clemency is an appropriate method to adjuust sentences of persons
involved in the same crime to obtain a just result based on relative
culpability. The record is clear that (Gregory) Rouster is more culpable in
this case. Stealing from the Reases was his idea in the first place, and
his fingerprints are on the goods removed from the home but not carried
away from the site."
• "I have found no instance in whichh Indiana has executed a defendant
where a more culpable co-defendant's life was spared. The principle of
proportional sentencing is deeply rooted in our legal system."
• "It is impossible to know who fired thee weapons that killed the Reases.
There is evidence indicating that Williams did so. There also is evidence
indicating that Rouster, alone or in combination with someone else,
committed the murders. It is unwise to impose the sentence of death in
these particular circumstances, with doubt as to Williams' direct
participation."
Indianapolis Star By Mary Beth Schneider and Theodore Kim
July 3, 2004
Gov. Joe Kernan commuted the death sentence of Darnell Williams on Friday
-- the first time in almost 50 years that an Indiana governor has spared
the life of a condemned killer.
Williams, 37, was to have died by lethal injection July 9 for the 1986
murders of John and Henrietta Rease, of Gary.
Instead, he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, without the
possibility of parole.
Williams' mother, Shirley Williams Greer, was working at a Hammond
riverboat casino when she learned from an Indianapolis Star reporter that
her son would not be executed.
She said in a near-whisper: "Thank God, thank God, thank God."
"Knew it," she said, her voice growing stronger. "All my co-workers said,
'Don't worry.' Prayer works. I'm happy. Very, very happy. My firstborn is
off Death Row. And now we get to fight another fight: getting him released."
That, however, is unlikely.
In his decision, Kernan, a Democrat, followed both the June 29 unanimous
recommendation of the five-member Indiana Parole Board and Williams' own
request to put him behind bars for the rest of his life.
No other governor has granted a Death Row inmate clemency since Gov. George
Craig, a Republican, did so for a man and a woman in separate cases in
1956. And no other parole board has recommended clemency since Indiana
restored the death penalty in 1977.
Eleven men have been executed since.
Williams and Gregory Rouster, one of the Reases' foster children, were
sentenced to death in 1987.
Williams has said he went with Rouster and two others to the couple's home
the night of the slayings but didn't know a robbery was planned. He said he
was drunk and blacked out before the Reases were shot.
Rouster and Williams were the only two who were charged with murder.
A Lake Superior Court judge ruled in June 2003 that Rouster, now known as
Gamba Rastafari, could not be executed because he is mentally retarded.
Kernan had been urged to break with history not only by Williams' family
but by friends of the Reases, the Lake County attorney who had prosecuted
Williams, and six of the 12 jurors who had convicted him.
The Reases' former pastor, Rev. R.T. Mitchell of New Revelation Baptist
Church in Gary, called Kernan's order "a wise decision."
"It was the right thing to do," he said. "And I believe that the governor
believes it was the right thing to do. It gives everybody a sense of
release. Now that both (Williams and Rouster) are serving life sentences, I
think pressure has been lifted from some who felt like, 'if one is spared,
both should be spared.' "
But he said Williams should remain in prison unless "substantial" evidence
in the future shows he was not involved.
Williams' attorney, Juliet Yackel, called Kernan's decision "the
appropriate course of action."
"He is thrilled," she said. "What he has been saying is: 'Faith is
everything to me.' It has taken him through this process, whatever the
outcome was going to be. We're very happy he'll be around to see another day."
And his stepfather, Nathaniel Greer, said: "I thought the whole thing was
wrong. Darnell needed a second chance."
In a written statement explaining his decision, Kernan -- a supporter of
the death penalty -- said Williams' was a unique case.
He cited Williams' low IQ -- just above the cut-off at which the U.S.
Supreme Court "has imposed a hard and fast rule" barring execution. That
rule spared Williams' co-defendant, Rouster.
"The record is clear that Rouster is more culpable in this case," Kernan
wrote in his clemency statement. "Those who bear the most responsibility
for a crime should pay the highest penalty. Because Rouster cannot be
executed for the crime, it is unjust for Williams to be executed."
Kernan also said the record shows there are doubts about Williams' role in
the slayings.
In a Parole Board hearing two weeks ago in Michigan City, where Williams is
being held, Williams maintained his innocence, saying: "These hands are not
bloody."
Williams said he regained consciousness after he was arrested.
Police found him shortly after the slayings with $232 and a .30-caliber
bullet in his pockets -- a bullet Yackel said did not match those that
killed the couple. And though the guns were found, they did not have
Williams' fingerprints on them.
Williams was only four days away from being put to death on Aug. 1, 2003,
when Gov. Frank O'Bannon halted the execution to allow time for DNA testing
of blood on Williams' clothing. Those tests showed that the blood did not
come from Henrietta Rease and results were inconclusive for John Rease's blood.
The Indiana Supreme Court ruled the tests did not rule out Williams as a
suspect and said there was overwhelming evidence of his guilt in refusing
to halt the execution.
Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter -- whose office had argued against
clemency -- declined to comment Friday on Kernan's decision.
Kernan was on his way to his South Bend home at 1 p.m. Friday, to prepare
for three days of Independence Day festivities he is attending statewide,
when his office released his written decision.
He would, spokesman Jonathan Swain said, have no further public comment on
it at this time.
Kernan took over as governor when O'Bannon died on Sept. 13. He is now
running for his first full term for office against Republican nominee Mitch
Daniels.
On Friday, a spokesman for Daniels' campaign, Marc Lotter, said Daniels
will not make Kernan's decision a political issue.
"Mitch knows the governor made the decision in good conscience," Lotter
said. While Daniels does not know all the facts of this case, Lotter said,
"he trusts Kernan's judgment."
And he added: "Let me just emphatically say now this will not be a
political issue and Mitch doesn't want to catch anyone raising it."
Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Kip Tew, as well as Kernan's campaign,
declined to comment.
State Rep. Luke Messer, a Shelbyville Republican who is executive director
of the Indiana Republican Party, said he backs the death penalty but didn't
know enough about Williams' case to judge whether Kernan made the right
decision.
"I know there has been a lot of political pressure in an election year," he
said. "Voters who are strong supporters of the death penalty will have to
decide if it is a unique circumstance or a trend of how (Kernan) will govern."
Robin Winston, former chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, said anyone
familiar with Kernan knows "he simply would not make a rash decision.