Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 9, 2006 10:01:06 GMT -5
Notice filed in federal court in Naeem Williams case
Federal prosecutors filed notice today that they intend to seek a federal death penalty for a Schofield Barracks soldier if he is convicted of first-degree murder for the death of his 5-year-old daughter.
Spc. Naeem Williams, 26, was indicted Feb. 15 for last year’s death of Talia Williams. Her stepmother, Delilah Williams, 22, was also charged with murder, but hasn’t been indicted.
The decision to seek the death penalty was made by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, according to U.S. Attorney Edward Kubo Jr.
The death penalty won’t be sought against Delilah Williams, U.S. Attorney Marshall H. Silverberg said. Both are being held in Honolulu, he said.
Talia was taken by ambulance from the family’s residence at Wheeler Army Airfield to Wahiawa General Hospital on July 16, 2005.
Emergency room doctors pronounced the child dead from “blunt head trauma due to battered child syndrome” shortly after she arrived. Doctors said the girl had bruises on her arms, chest, knees and thighs and a cut on her back.
Court documents have quoted Delilah Williams as saying her husband struck Talia with a belt because she had wet herself, and when he found out she had wet herself again, he struck her again, and she fell, hitting her head on the floor.
Hawaii has no death penalty, but Williams will be tried in the state under the federal death penalty law, Silverberg said.
The case is being prosecuted in U.S. District Court because the crime allegedly occurred on a military base, he said.
A trial date for Williams has not been set.
Only a handful of federal executions have taken place since the 1960s, with fewer than 50 federal death row inmates nationwide.
Only one other person has faced the federal death penalty in Hawaii since the 1950s.
Richard “China” Chong avoided a death sentence in 2000 by agreeing to plead guilty to the 1997 murder of William Noa Jr. over a $100 drug debt.
Chong was sentenced in 2001 to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but died of an apparent suicide about three months later at the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, Calif.
© 2006 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Federal prosecutors filed notice today that they intend to seek a federal death penalty for a Schofield Barracks soldier if he is convicted of first-degree murder for the death of his 5-year-old daughter.
Spc. Naeem Williams, 26, was indicted Feb. 15 for last year’s death of Talia Williams. Her stepmother, Delilah Williams, 22, was also charged with murder, but hasn’t been indicted.
The decision to seek the death penalty was made by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, according to U.S. Attorney Edward Kubo Jr.
The death penalty won’t be sought against Delilah Williams, U.S. Attorney Marshall H. Silverberg said. Both are being held in Honolulu, he said.
Talia was taken by ambulance from the family’s residence at Wheeler Army Airfield to Wahiawa General Hospital on July 16, 2005.
Emergency room doctors pronounced the child dead from “blunt head trauma due to battered child syndrome” shortly after she arrived. Doctors said the girl had bruises on her arms, chest, knees and thighs and a cut on her back.
Court documents have quoted Delilah Williams as saying her husband struck Talia with a belt because she had wet herself, and when he found out she had wet herself again, he struck her again, and she fell, hitting her head on the floor.
Hawaii has no death penalty, but Williams will be tried in the state under the federal death penalty law, Silverberg said.
The case is being prosecuted in U.S. District Court because the crime allegedly occurred on a military base, he said.
A trial date for Williams has not been set.
Only a handful of federal executions have taken place since the 1960s, with fewer than 50 federal death row inmates nationwide.
Only one other person has faced the federal death penalty in Hawaii since the 1950s.
Richard “China” Chong avoided a death sentence in 2000 by agreeing to plead guilty to the 1997 murder of William Noa Jr. over a $100 drug debt.
Chong was sentenced in 2001 to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but died of an apparent suicide about three months later at the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, Calif.
© 2006 Honolulu Star-Bulletin