Thomas Akers was executed by the State of Virginia for the murder of Wesley Smith
According to court documents Thomas Akers and an accomplice were driving around with Wesley Smith in his vehicle. Akers would attack Smith and began to choke him with a belt before beating him with a baseball bat.
Thomas Akers would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Thomas Akers would be executed by lethal injection on March 1 2001
Thomas Akers Photos
Thomas Akers FAQ
When Was Thomas Akers Executed
Thomas Akers was executed on March 1 2001
Thomas Akers Case
If all goes as scheduled, Virginia will mark International Death Penalty Abolition Day Thursday with the execution of a man who wants to die. Two families, his own and his victim’s, believe he should get his wish. His lawyers do not. Thomas Wayne Akers is set for execution by injection at 9 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center for the Dec. 18, 1998, capital murder of Wesley Smith in Franklin County. Smith, 24, of Roanoke, was robbed and beaten to death with an aluminum baseball bat. Akers, 31, and his partner in the slaying, Timothy Dwayne Martin, were caught in New York state near the Canadian border. Akers had Smith’s wallet. Martin pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life. Akers pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to death – a wish he’d harbored since at least 1987 when he was imprisoned on other charges and wrote a judge that he wanted to die in the electric chair.
He still wants to be executed but his lawyers are fighting – against his wishes – to save his life. “I think the lawyers should butt out,” said Marilyn Meador, Smith’s mother. “I know him dying is not going to bring my son back but if that’s what he wants, let him have it,” she said. Meador said, “I feel sorry for his mom because she’ll lose her son just like I lost my son but in a different way. I know it’s hard on a mom, losing a son.” Smith was a machinist for a steel company in Salem. He had been living with his sister, Zshawn Morris, until a week before his death, when he moved into his own apartment. “He was a good boy,” Morris said. “I didn’t believe in the death penalty until all this happened,” Morris said. But “he killed my brother and it was a brutal murder,” she said. She said the last time she saw her brother was the night he moved out of her house. Morris’ daughter, Katie, was 2 at the time. “He bent down, and I’ll never forget this as long as I live, he said, ‘Katie, just because Uncle Wes is leaving and moving out on my own doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I’m not going away forever.’ . . . “I’ll never get over this.” she said. “We were very close. . . . The only family I have left is my mother.”
The Rev. Larry W. Lykens, pastor of The Family Worship Center in Roanoke, recently visited Akers on death row. In an e-mail to The Times-Dispatch, he said, “I found Tommy to be very sharp, I was totally amazed at his understanding of the Scripture, in fact his ability to quote the Scripture was amazing.” “I am the pastor who will be with him during his execution,” he wrote. Lykens disagreed with Akers’ lawyers, Robert Lee and Marie Donnelly of the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center. They believe that Akers, who is retarded and is said to be mentally ill, is not competent. An appeal and request for a stay of execution are pending before the Virginia Supreme Court. Lykens said, “I personally feel that Miss Donnelly and her association have their own agenda.” He said, “I also am the pastor of Tommy’s mother and grandmother as well. All that these folk want is for Tommy to be granted his wishes and be allowed to die on March 1.”
According to Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, March 1 is International Death Penalty Abolition Day, marking the anniversary of the date in 1847 in which the state of Michigan officially became the first English-speaking territory in the world to abolish capital punishment. It still does not have the death penalty. At 8:15 p.m., Virginia People of Faith for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will hold a vigil in the field outside the Greensville Correctional Center. Kathleen Kenney, of the Office of Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, said she finds this execution especially abhorrent because “essentially, we’re allowing state-assisted suicide.” The Rev. Stephen Ford, a Baptist prison chaplain, will speak at the vigil. He has been a chaplain to death row inmates in Virginia and has accompanied several inmates to the death chamber. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, at least one other inmate, Robert Clayton, of Oklahoma, is scheduled to be executed Thursday. If executed, Akers will be the 82nd inmate put to death in Virginia since capital punishment was allowed to resume in 1976. It will be the first execution in the state this year.