William Smith was executed by the State of Ohio for the murder of Mary Bradford
According to court documents William Smith and Mary Bradford were seen leaving a bar together. Later that night she would be sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. Smith would also steal a number of belongings from her home
Smith would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
William Henry Smith would be executed by lethal injection on March 8 2005
William Smith Photos
William Smith FAQ
When Was William Smith Executed
William Smith was executed on March 8 2005
William Smith Case
The state of Ohio on Tuesday executed a 47-year-old man convicted of killing a woman in 1987, after a court rejected a claim that he suffered from brain damage. William Smith was pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m. EST following an injection of lethal drugs at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, according to Kim Norris, a spokeswoman for the attorney general of Ohio.
Smith was convicted of the stabbing murder of Mary Bradford, 47, whom he also raped and robbed in her Cincinnati apartment after they had met in a bar. The execution was the seventh in the United States this year and the 951st since the country brought back the death penalty in 1976. Smith admitted that he stabbed Bradford about 10 times during an argument over cocaine and cigarettes, which he claimed she took from him. Prosecutors alleged that he raped her after the knife attack and then stole two television sets and a stereo from her apartment.
The Ohio Parole Board unanimously upheld his sentence, but a federal district judge in Cincinnati had stayed his execution on grounds that the state did not thoroughly investigate his claim that his behavior was affected by brain damage. An appellate court overturned the stay earlier in the week, saying a scan failed to confirm such damage.
Smith was offered a special meal on the evening before his execution. He chose a large bag of cheese-flavored corn chips and a soft drink.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7840900