Ga. Prisoner Gets Death Reprieve

A T L A N T A, Feb. 25 -- Alex Williams saw little men in his prison cell, talked to imaginary animals, thought actress Sigourney Weaver was God. He is a paranoid schizophrenic, and until today, lived on Georgia's death row, where he was scheduled to die this week

But in a move that surprised some, the Georgia Pardons and Parole Board, has instead commuted his sentence to life in prison without parole.

The decision is being hailed as a victory by advocates of the mentally ill — and particularly for the mentally ill in America's prisons. An array of groups, including the European Union, the National Parent-Teacher Association, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill had fought hard for the commutation.

Williams' case was an unusual and controversial one.

In 1986, at age 17, he murdered a teenage girl in his hometown of Augusta, Ga. Aleta Bunch, 16, was a well-liked local girl, missing for a week before Williams told police where he had left her body. Williams kidnapped her from a local mall, viciously raped her and shot her four times in the face, leaving her to die.

That much, the jury knew. There was never any doubt Williams had committed the crime.

What the jury wasn't told, however, is that Alex Williams had exhibited mental problems well before he committed the murder. And he came from a home in which severe physical abuse was commonplace — midnight beatings with brooms or bats, his mother forcing him to lay on the floor while she stood on his head, holding a gun to her child's head, threatening to blow it off.

What Jurors Didn’t Know

Williams' family had no money for an attorney; one was appointed by the court.

Juror Stephen Dickson, who learned years after the trial of the abuse and mental problems, later stated in an affadavit that "Alex's lawyer could not have cared less about his client and made absolutely no effort to defend him."

Another juror, Johnny Gibson, stunned that circumstances of Williams' life were never presented in court, told Georgia's Pardons and Parole Board, "It would have been very important for the jury to know that Mr. Williams was a victim of child abuse throughout his entire life."