Convicted murderer Williams executed 2/21/2009 2:36 AM
By JENNIFER MILLER Staff Writer
COLUMBIA -- Without opening his eyes or flinching more than a small facial muscle, Luke Williams was executed Friday night, 18 years after he killed his wife and son.
The 56-year-old chose not to make a final statement before he was administered the drug cocktail that would kill him.
Williams lay motionless on the steel table in the death chamber. He was strapped to the table with his left arm stretched out to the side for the needles that carried the drugs into his body.
The tubes carrying the drugs flinched slightly as the liquid began flowing at 6 p.m. Within seconds Williams eye lids lightly fluttered and lips parted slightly as he appeared to snore. By 6:02 p.m. his breathing appeared to stop. At 6:04 p.m. a prison official walked to the table for a closer look then walked back to the corner. A few minutes later the official checked again and summoned a doctor who check his pupils and heartbeat.
The doctor nodded at the prison officials who then pronounced him dead at 6:13 p.m.
Williams was convicted on killing his wife Linda, 39, and their 12-year-old son Shaun in June 1991.
Linda had been beaten to death. Shaun was strangled. Their bodies were doused with gasoline and set afire in the family van, which was driven into a tree in the Sumter National Forest in Edgefield County. Police said it was a botched attempt to make their deaths look like an accident.
The motive was money, authorities said. Shortly before the murders, Williams took out $525,000 in life insurance on his family. He was unemployed at the time and was receiving workman's compensation for an on-the-job injury. He was taking classes at Augusta Technical Institute.
For his last meal Williams requested fried chicken, steak, a baked potato with sour cream and butter, tossed salad, cranberry sauce, peach cobbler, fried turkey and ketchup, according to Josh Gelinas, Communications Director for the state Department of Corrections.
Linda's mother, Dora Azrak, said Friday night she was relieved that Williams had finally been executed. But it was a tough day for her while she waited on word at her Florida home. "It just brings back all these memories."
She's looking for closure now.
"I'm just hoping I will get better," she said. Since the murders she's been depressed. And it was hard knowing that for two years after the murders Williams was free.
It took authorities about a year to arrest him, and he was free on bond until his trial in 1993.
Williams only visitor Friday was his attorney, David Bruck of Virginia, who also witnessed the execution. There were no members of either Williams' or his wife's families at Broad River Run Correctional Institution on Friday.
Former Edgefield County Sheriff's Investigator Don Bullock, who helped make the case against Williams, was a witness along with three members of the media.
Linda Williams was a teacher's aide for a kindergarten class at Belair Elementary School in Columbia County. Shaun attended Lakeside Middle. The family lived in the Bridlewood subdivision off Fury's Ferry Road in Evans.
Williams told police he last saw his wife and son when they left their home about 7 a.m. June 19, 1991 for a shopping trip in Edgefield and Aiken. However, according to court testimony Linda was dressed in an oversized T-shirt, sweat pants and no bra when she was found. The van was found about eight miles from the family home.
In the 15 years since his conviction, Williams had exhausted all his state and federal appeals. Only eight other inmates have been on South Carolina's death row longer. The longest, 50-year-old Edward L. Elmore, began serving a sentence for murder in 1982. His execution was the 282nd in South Carolina since 1912.
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Comment Title:
SHOULD HAVE DIED LONG TIME AGO, PIECE OF CRAP, THEY SHOULD DO EVERYBODY ON DEATH ROW AND START FRESH WITH A NEW BATCH OF LOSERS.
Posted by: Bri On: 2/21/2009
Comment Title:
Should have been killed eighteen years ago, and in a brutal way like he did to his victims.
Posted by: On: 2/21/2009
Comment Title:
13 years to execute, the lawyers must be getting paid by the hour.
Posted by: Bobby On: 2/21/2009
Comment Title:
It should have read at 6:13 the scum went to meet his maker,at 6:13 and 1 second he went to the devil and his new home. As for the women with the sign let the next one live with you.
Posted by: On: 2/21/2009
Comment Title: Incredible
This article would have been better served to say....Pronounced dead by Lethal Injection at 8:00pm. (stop) Because the way it reads now sounds like we really wanted to chalk one up for the good guys. Taking a life never means that. Did this man deserve to die, of course, maybe faster than eighteen years later, but I see no need to glamorize it in this fashion.
Posted by: On: 2/21/2009
Comment Title: EXECUTION
TO THE WOMAN CARRYING THE SIGN, "MILLIONS TO KILL, PENNIES TO HEAL"..... IF IT WERE YOUR DAUGHTER AND GRANDCHILD THAT HE KILLED, YOU PROBABLY WOULDN'T BE CARRYING THAT SIGN. HIS LIFE WAS WORTH NOTHING!! HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ELECTROCUTED BY ELECTRICITY, INSTEAD OF A MEASLEY PRICK IN THE ARM!!
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