HONOLULU\u2014A federal death penalty trial is set to begin in Hawaii, a rarity in a state that abolished capital punishment in 1957.<\/p>\n
Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday in the trial of a former Hawaii-based Army soldier accused of beating his 5-year-old daughter to death in 2005. But because the crime allegedly took place on military property, Naeem Williams is being tried in federal court\u2014a system that does have the death penalty.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s rare for the government to seek the death penalty in a state that doesn\u2019t allow it. Only seven of 59 inmates on federal death row are from states that didn\u2019t have the death penalty at the time the sentence was imposed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.<\/p>\n
While the Williams case hasn\u2019t received much publicity, the death penalty circumstance gives it something in common with a more high profile case for federal prosecutors: the Boston Marathon bombing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a population in Massachusetts and in the city where they\u2019re not used to having the death penalty,\u201d said Richard Dieter, the Death Penalty Information Center\u2019s executive director. \u201cIt just makes it a little harder to get these kinds of death sentences.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Kenneth Lawson, associate director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, noted that someone who considers the death penalty immoral can be disqualified from serving on the jury.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you get a jury of all of your peers when the only ones who can sit on there are those who believe in capital punishment?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Attorneys in the Williams case began questioning prospective jurors in January.<\/p>\n
Talia Emoni Williams died in July 2005 after she was brought to a hospital unresponsive, vomiting and covered in bruises. A criminal complaint by federal investigators accuses her then-25-year-old father of beating the child to discipline her for urinating on herself. Federal investigators wrote that military law enforcement agents found blood splatters in the walls of the family\u2019s home at Wheeler Army Airfield from Talia being whipped with Williams\u2019 belt.<\/p>\n
Delilah Williams, Talia\u2019s stepmother, was also charged with murder but pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors. She\u2019s expected to be sentenced to 20 years in prison after she testifies against Williams at his trial, said her federal public defender, Alexander Silvert.<\/p>\n
The Army agreed the case should be prosecuted in the civilian justice system so that the father and stepmother could appear in the same court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am shocked that this case has not received more attention from the public and more attention from those groups in Hawaii that are anti-death penalty,\u201d Silvert said. \u201cNo one\u2019s in protest. To me, the lack of interest in the community is troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talia\u2019s biological mother, Tarshia Williams, is expected to testify for the prosecution, her attorneys said. She filed a civil lawsuit against the government over Talia\u2019s death. It has been put on hold until after the criminal trial. The mother\u2019s lawsuit claims the military didn\u2019t report to the proper authorities that Talia\u2019s father and stepmother \u201cabused and tortured\u201d her throughout the seven months she lived in Hawaii before she died.<\/p>\n
Alberto Gonzales, the U.S. attorney general during President George W. Bush\u2019s administration, made the decision to seek the death penalty against Naeem Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder Bush\u2019s administration, the philosophy was the federal death penalty should be spread out among all the states,\u201d Dieter said.<\/p>\n
Legal observers say it\u2019s surprising that the current government continues to seek the death penalty against Williams. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing the federal government is choosing to move forward with a death penalty case in a state that so clearly and constantly has rejected that as a form of punishment,\u201d said Rick Sing, president of the Hawaii Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers.<\/p>\n
The last time the federal death penalty was approved for a Hawaii case was against Richard \u201cChina\u201d Chong. But before he went to trial in 2000, he agreed to plead guilty to a 1997 drug-related murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He died of an apparent suicide about three months later.<\/p>\n
Hawaii\u2019s history with capital punishment goes back long before statehood. There were 49 executions dating in Hawaii dating to 1856, with the last one recorded in 1944, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.<\/p>\n
The final execution of Ardiano Domingo\u2014a\u00a0Filipino\u00a0who was hanged for killing a woman with scissors in a Kauai pineapple field\u2014helped prompt Hawaii\u2019s territorial lawmakers to abolish the death penalty in the state, said Williamson Chang, a University of Hawaii law school professor who teaches a course on the history of law in Hawaii.<\/p>\n
Chang said before the law changed, Hawaii disproportionally executed Filipinos, Japanese and Native Hawaiians.<\/p>\n
Because of that history, Chang said he believes Hawaii jurors will struggle with the Williams case.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re used to a society which does not put people to death,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a slap in the face to the values of Hawaii.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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