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Georgia and Florida postpone executions of mentally ill inmates

From staff and wire reports

ATLANTA -- A mentally ill inmate in Georgia and another in Florida were granted stays of execution Tuesday, though their illnesses did not figure prominently among the reasons they were granted temporary reprieves.

The Georgia Supreme Court stayed the execution of a mentally ill man who raped and killed a girl when he was 17 years old.

The indefinite stay came 48 hours before Alexander Williams , now 32, was to be electrocuted. Williams, a paranoid schizophrenic, was convicted of the abduction, rape and murder of 16-year-old Aleta Carol Bunch in Augusta, Georgia, in 1986. He was sentenced to die that same year.

A concurring opinion Tuesday by Justice P. Harris Hines indicated that Williams' age or mental illness were not factors in the court deciding to issue a stay.

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He wrote that since the court is reviewing, in a separate case, whether the electric chair constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, it should issue a stay in the Williams case.

In a dissent, Justice George Carley said the court previously found that electrocution is not cruel and unusual punishment, therefore staying Williams' execution was unnecessary.

A stay does not mean Williams has escaped the death penalty. It only means he has won a temporary reprieve while the court considers the merits of electrocution. He had been scheduled to die by electrocution at 7 p.m. EDT Thursday.

If the court orders the execution to proceed at a later date, Williams still has the option of turning to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.

The stay came hours after Williams' attorneys turned to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole for clemency. The stay takes the state board out of picture, agency officials said.

Williams' supporters wanted the board to commute the death sentence to life in prison because of Williams' age when he committed the crimes and because of his illness.

Two of Williams' lawyers did not immediately return telephone messages from CNN.com.

Ellyn Jeager, director of public policy and advocacy for the National Mental Health Association of Georgia, said she was "relieved."

However, she said, "Clearly, we would like to see clemency granted in a permanent way so we know we are not talking about the electric chair or lethal injection."

Following a nationwide debate on whether the electrocution is a barbaric mode of punishment, Georgia lawmakers last year voted to replace the electric chair with lethal injection for future cases. But those sentenced to death before the change would still be executed by electrocution, Dieter said.

The case has attracted international attention, with officials from France and the European Union lobbying on Williams' behalf. The American Bar Association and the Children's Defense Fund wrote to the parole board. Gov. Roy Barnes also urged the board to commute the sentence.

Former first lady Rosalyn Carter also spoke in Williams' support.

Also Tuesday, the execution by lethal injection of a Florida murderer who said he wanted to die was put on hold by a federal judge.

Dan Patrick Hauser, 30, had been scheduled to die shortly after 6 p.m. EDT Tuesday for killing a topless dancer in Fort Walton Beach five years ago.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Mickel temporarily postponed the execution, saying he needed more time to review legal documents filed recently.

Hauser has a history of mental illness and has repeatedly tried to commit suicide. He was sentenced to die for the New Year's Day 1995 murder of 21-year-old Melanie Rodrigues, who was strangled to death in a Fort Walton Beach motel.

Hauser confessed to the killing and later provided prosecutors with gruesome details that became the basis for their decision to seek the death penalty.

CNN.com correspondent Raju Chebium in Washington and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Georgia Department of Corrections
European Union Policy and Action on the death penalty
Justice For All
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

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