Thursday, October 20, 2005
Williams can visit with relatives Sunday and Monday morning.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Condemned killer Willie "Flip" Williams is to meet with family members Monday, the day before the 48-year-old Youngstown man is scheduled to be executed for killing four men execution-style in 1991 in a case that became known as the "Labor Day Massacre."
Williams' lawyer, Joe Wilhelm, said Williams has had visits from family at death row in the Mansfield Correctional Institution and is scheduled to meet with relatives, including his mother, after he's moved to a holding cell at the Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility outside Lucasville on Monday, Wilhelm said.
Williams is declining interview requests, said Wilhelm, chief of the death penalty section for the Ohio Public Defender's Office.
"He's doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances," Wilhelm said of Williams.
Brian Niceswanger, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said Williams is to arrive at the SOCF sometime Monday.
"He'll remain in the holding cell until the execution," Niceswanger said.
Niceswanger said Williams will be able to visit with family the day before and the morning of the execution.
The night before, Williams will have the opportunity to order a special meal, Niceswanger said. The morning of the execution, Williams will be able to eat whatever is being served at the prison that morning.
A statewide group that is opposed to the execution, Ohioans to Stop Executions, plans prayer services in Columbus, Youngstown, Cleveland and Cincinnati to protest Williams' execution.
"We will also have a presence in Lucasville at the time of [Williams'] execution," said Alice Gerdeman, OTSE chair.
"We are in opposition to executions on principle; therefore, we are in opposition to this execution," Gerdeman said.
Williams is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday. He was convicted of killing William "Lamont" Dent, Alfonda "Al" R. Madison Sr. and Eric Howard as part of what authorities say was a drug-related dispute. Williams also was convicted of killing Theodore "Teddy" Wynn Jr., who authorities say was an acquaintance of one of the other victims.
Recap of crimes and events
Williams, who authorities say used to control a major drug trafficking operation on Youngstown's North and East sides, was convicted of killing Madison, Dent, Howard and Wynn in an East Side home in September 1991 in execution-style shootings that were later tagged the "Labor Day Massacre."
Authorities said Williams was trying to resume control of the drug trade when the killings occurred.
Three teen accomplices aided Williams, investigators said. Each victim was killed with gunshots to the head, according to investigators.
After Williams' capture, he and other prisoners broke out of the Mahoning County Jail, court records say. After months on the run, Williams surrendered to authorities in early 1992 after he and other accomplices armed with guns and explosives invaded the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center, court records say.
At the time, the juvenile justice center held the three teen accomplices who were to testify against Williams in connection with the four slayings, investigators and court records say.
In August 1993, a jury convicted Williams on multiple charges, including aggravated murder, in the killings and sentenced him to death.
State and federal courts have upheld Williams' conviction and death sentences.
The Ohio Parole Board has recommended that Gov. Bob Taft deny clemency for Williams. Orest Holubec, a Taft spokesman, said the governor will make a decision on clemency for Williams by Monday.