Crimesider
Crimesider
September 28, 2012 11:50 AM

Judge halts Terry Williams' execution based on new evidence

By
Crimesider Staff
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Daily Blotter

Terrance Williams

/ CBS Philly
(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia judge halted death-row inmate Terrance "Terry" Williams' scheduled execution on Wednesday, granting him a new sentencing hearing.

Judge Teresa Sarmina said prosecutors suppressed evidence that Williams' victim was an alleged pedophile who abused boys, including Williams. She still upheld Williams' first-degree murder conviction.

Williams, 46, is on death row for killing a church deacon and a high school sports booster as a teenager. He now says both men were sexually abusing him, and his lawyers said police and prosecutors hid that evidence from the jury that sentenced him to death in 1986.

Philadelphia prosecutors denied any wrongdoing.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, since Pennsylvania reinstated the death penalty in 1978, three inmates have been put to death.


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