Alan Willett Executed For 2 Arkansas Murders

Alan Willet was executed by the State of Arkansas for two murders

According to court documents Alan Willett would murder his thirteen year old son Eric and Alan brother. Willett would also attempt to murder his daughter and another son who thankfully survived the attack

Alan Willet would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Alan Willet would be executed by lethal injection on September 8 1999

Table of Contents

Alan Willett Case

The jury considered the testimony of appellant’s daughter, Ruby, law-enforcement officials, and medical experts, and reviewed exhibits, photographs, and appellant’s videotaped statement.   Appellant’s statement indicated that he considered murdering his family in August by carbon monoxide poisoning.   He drove his family to a nearby lake to carry out this plan, but did not complete the murders.  

One month later, he stated that he sat up all night planning to kill his family and then to commit suicide.   Early in the morning of September 14, 1993, he chose an eight-pound window weight as his weapon and first attacked his daughter Ruby, because she, as the oldest, would be most likely to talk him out of his plan.   He struck her on the head, but she awakened, and according to Ruby, when she screamed, he attempted to smother her.   The noise roused Ruby’s thirteen-year-old brother, Eric, who entered the room while Ruby was seeking to flee with the youngest brother, Jonathan, in her arms.   The appellant struck Jonathan on the head, and then turned his attention to Eric while Ruby and Jonathan escaped.   Appellant stated that Eric practically ran into the weapon, and fell to the ground when he was struck on the head.   Appellant then turned upon his own mentally handicapped brother, Roger, told him to turn around, and when he did so, struck him on the head.   The blow, however, did not stun him, and appellant repeated the attack with as many as five blows until Roger fell to the floor.   Appellant then returned to Eric and struck him again to make sure he was dead, before appellant locked himself in the bathroom and cut himself on the wrists and throat.  

The medical testimony was that Eric may have lived as long as thirty minutes after being struck, and Roger was still alive when the officers arrived at the scene soon after Eric’s death.   Both Ruby and Jonathan survived, and appellant’s conviction and sentence for attempted murder of Rudy and Jonathan, affirmed in Willett I, is not at issue in this appeal.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ar-supreme-court/1021306.html

Scroll to Top