Anthony Williams was executed by the State of Texas for the kidnapping, sexually assault and murder of a thirteen year old girl
According to court documents Anthony Williams, who was a convicted serial rapist, would abduct thirteen year old Vickie Lynn Wright from a bowling alley. The thirteen year old would be sexually assaulted and beaten to death with a board
Anthony Williams would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Anthony Williams would be executed by lethal injection on May 28 1987
Anthony Williams Photos
Anthony Williams FAQ
When was Anthony Williams executed
Anthony Williams was executed on May 28 1987
How was Anthony Williams executed
Anthony Williams was executed by lethal injection
Anthony Williams Case
Anthony ‘Bo Peep’ Williams was executed by injection at 12:22 a.m. Thursday for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl who was beaten to death with a board.
The Supreme Court Wednesday night rejected Williams’ appeal, with Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall dissenting, after state and federal courts refused in rapid succession to stop the execution.
Williams, 27, was the 23rd inmate executed in Texas and the 74th nationally since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976. It was the nation’s sixth execution this year and the third for Texas, which leads the country in executions.
Williams’ execution is the fourth in the United States since May 16. William Boyd Tucker is scheduled to die tonight in Georgia’s electric chair unless the Supreme Court, which received an appeal on his behalf late Wednesday, grants a stay.
Should Tucker be executed in May, it would be the second time there have been as many as five executions in one month in the United States since the carrying out of death sentences resumed in 1977. There were five executions in January 1985.
State District Judge Woody Densen of Houston denied Williams’ request for a stay of execution about noon, and U.S. District Judge Carl Bue, also in Houston, refused less than two hours later to stop Williams’ death by injection.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Williams’ appeals, without comment, just before 3 p.m.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans acted within 15 minutes of the state appeal court’s ruling. The federal court said Williams’ appeal ‘raised no substantial showing’ that his federal rights were violated.
The appeal claimed Williams is mentally incompetent and was denied a proper psychiatric examination before his trial.
When told the Supreme Court had rejected his appeal, Williams appeared shaken and he sat on the edge of a bunk and lit a cigarette.
Williams was sentenced to die by injection for the June 1978 slaying of Vickie Lynn Wright, 13. The girl was abducted outside a Houston bowling alley, and her body was found in woods near Williams’ neighborhood the next day. She had been raped and beaten to death with a board.
‘His mood appeared to be calm,’ Texas Department of Corrections spokesman Charles Brown said of Williams, who arrived at the death house in the Huntsville Unit at 9:05 a.m.
Williams requested his dinner of fish, french fries, bread and milk be served at 8 p.m. in observation of Ramadan, a Moslem holiday marked by fasting between dawn and sundown. He ate only a half a piece of fish and four ounces of milk, prison officials said.
At 8:45 p.m., Williams talked to his mother, Lee Williams of Houston, by telephone for nearly 30 minutes, prison officials said. He visited earlier in the day with his sister and brother.
At 9:15 p.m., he talked with the prison chaplain and then wrote some letters.
Prison officials said he appeared calm throughout the waiting period.
Brown said Williams had not requested any personal witnesses to his execution.
Densen last month set a fourth execution date for Williams.
‘I think there should be some finality in this case,’ Densen said at the time. ‘I understand how the (victim’s) family must feel.’
Beth Wright, Vickie Lynn’s mother and a widow, said she had doubts Williams would be executed.
‘Let’s hope it goes through this time,’ Wright said earlier.