Jeffrey Williams

Jeffrey Lynn Williams, 30, was executed by lethal injection on 26 June in Huntsville, Texas for the rape, murder, and robbery of a woman in her apartment.

In October 1994, Williams, then 23, forced his way into the apartment of Barbara Jackson Pullins. He cut her with a knife in a brief struggle, then forced her to disrobe and raped her. He then tied her feet together with a telephone cord and placed a plastic bag over head, in an attempt to suffocate her. When that failed, he strangled her with the cord from an iron. After burning her body with a cigarette to make sure she was dead, Williams attempted to set the body afire by igniting a roll of paper towels.

Williams then moved to a bedroom where he found the victim's 9-year-old daughter, Jamie Jackson, sleeping. He started strangling her with his hands, and she awoke. Williams then ordered her to take off her clothes, struck her in the mouth, and raped her. He told her, "If you tell anybody, I'll kill you." He then stole several items from the apartment and drove off in Barbara Pullins' car.

After she heard Williams leave, Jamie went into the living room and found her mother lying motionless on the floor. She then ran to her grandmother's apartment nearby.

Police investigators who arrived on the scene found a neighbor in the apartment complex who said that an acquaintance of hers, Jeffrey Williams, came over to her apartment. He was there for about 20 minutes and acted in a very unusual manner, pacing the floor. The neighbor, Patricia Allen, directed police to the adjacent apartment complex where Williams lived. They found Pullins' car there.

Police matched the fingerprints of Williams, who had four prior felony convictions, with fingerprints taken from Pullins' apartment. They also made a photo array in which Jackson identified a photograph of Williams as her attacker. Williams was arrested. Pullins' purse and keys and several items from her apartment, including a VCR, television, and pistol, were in his apartment.

Williams made a videotaped statement in which he confessed to raping and murdering Barbara Pullins and raping Jamie Jackson. He said that he went to the apartment to steal from Pullins, but didn't plan to kill her. After he started to rape her, he stopped, he said, because "I wasn't getting anything out of it." He then started smoking a cigarette and talked with her and that was when he "just went off" and killed her, he said.

Williams' first felony conviction was for auto theft in April 1989, at age 17. He was placed on probation, ordered to pay a $400 fine, and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Within days of getting out of jail, Williams stole another car and shot at a man who tried to chase him. He was convicted of auto theft and aggravated assault in June 1989 and received a 7-year sentence. He served four months and was paroled in January 1990. In July 1990, he returned to prison with a 10-year sentence for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He served nine months of that sentence and was paroled in April 1991. In August 1991, he returned to prison with a 25-year sentence for auto theft. He served 2½ years of that sentence and was paroled in March 1994. (At the time, early parole was common in Texas due to strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.)

Jackson testified against Williams at his capital murder trial. The defense testified that Williams was a victim of physical and sexual abuse as a child. A jury convicted him in May 1995 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in December 1996. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," Williams said from the death chamber. After he finished reciting the 23rd Psalm in its entirety, the lethal injection was started. Williams then said, "I thank you Lord for all the good things you have given me. Bless my family." He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.