William Jones was executed by the State of Missouri for the murder of Stanley Albert
According to court documents William Jones would go for a ride with Stanley Albert and somewhere along the route Jones would fatally shoot Albert and steal the car. The next day William Jones would bury Albert whose body would not be discovered for months
William Jones would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
William Jones was executed by lethal injection on November 20 2002
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When Was William Jones Executed
William Jones was executed on November 20 2002
William Jones Case
A Kansas City man convicted of what prosecutors called a cold-blooded, execution-style killing was put to death early Wednesday. William R. Jones Jr. died at 12:04 a.m., three minutes after the first of three lethal doses was administered at the Potosi Correctional Center. He was the sixth Missouri inmate executed this year and the 59th since the state’s death penalty was reinstated in 1989.
While on the gurney, Jones lifted his head and faced his family and said, I love you dad, I love you all.'' His wife Gerti blew him a kiss and saidI love you so much” as tears streamed down her face. Jones’ fate was sealed late Tuesday when both Gov. Bob Holden and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals claiming Jones’ original trial attorneys were inept.
Jones was convicted of first-degree murder in the January 1986 death of Stanley Albert, whom he’d met at a Kansas City park frequented by gay men. Jones maintained he shot Albert in self-defense when Albert made unwanted sexual advances.
In a last statement read aloud after the execution, Jones said in a message to Albert’s children who were present, he said he regretted what had happened, and their loss but said he did not deserve to die. I am sorry for what has hapepned and that you suffered this great loss. But after 17 years of my incarceration, does this really give you a sense of closure or simply a sense of vengeance? I pray for you all.'' Albert's daughter, Robin Gazi, 32, Kansas City North, said:We do feel closure. Not vengeance. We feel that 17 years was not long enough. But that justice was served.” Gazi and her brother Chris Albert, 30, said their father missed two weddings, three births, two high school graduations, and grandchildren who did not know him. “We were teenagers just getting to know our father when he died,” Gazi said.
One of Jones’ attorneys, Charlie Rogers, said Jones’ version was supported by his subsequent diagnosis of ego dystonic-homosexuality, a discomfort with one’s homosexual inclinations, along with borderline personality disorder.
Patrick Peters, a former Jackson County prosecutor who tried the case, described Jones as a “schmoozer” who lied to his psychiatrist by initially claiming he was straight. Peters said that while Jones claimed to be upset by Albert’s sexual advances, Jones was in fact bisexual and living with a male lover. Peters said Jones plotted the killing after meeting and dating Albert and deciding he wanted his Camaro. He said he shot Albert five times with a .22 caliber gun on Jan. 16, 1986, and left him near the George Owens Nature Center in Independence. Investigators found the body weeks later.
Evidence included bullets and vehicle license plates found in Jones’ home, and his purchase of a shovel to bury the body, Peters said. He said Jones used the homophobic rage'' alibi in a post-conviction hearing when his claim of innocence didn't persuade jurors.He cold-bloodedly executed this guy,” Peters said.
The case has drawn attention in Europe, where opposition to the death penalty is strong, since Jones married an Austrian woman in January 2001. They met over the Internet a year earlier. Among those who asked Holden for clemency were the Austrian government and the 44-member Council of Europe, which said the execution would violate U.N. human rights resolutions. The European Parliament, meeting Tuesday in Strasbourg, France, signed and submitted a petition asking Holden to spare Jones’ life, according to Laurent David of the France-based Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort, part of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
Rogers said Jones’ trial attorneys didn’t make a plea offer in exchange for a lighter sentence, or explore Jones’ mental status, his abusive, dysfunctional family, or the brain damage he suffered from an attack by two men five months prior to the Albert killing. Thirty-two people were outside the corrections center to protest the death penalty. One person was there in favor.
