Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 443

529US2

Unit: $U46

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368

WILLIAMS v. TAYLOR

Opinion of the Court

mattock and taken the money from his wallet.1
Id., at 4.
In September 1986, Williams was convicted of robbery and
capital murder.

At Williams’ sentencing hearing, the prosecution proved
that Williams had been convicted of armed robbery in 1976
and burglary and grand larceny in 1982. The prosecution
also introduced the written confessions that Williams had
made in April. The prosecution described two auto thefts
and two separate violent assaults on elderly victims perpe-
trated after the Stone murder. On December 4, 1985, Wil-
liams had started a ﬁre outside one victim’s residence before
attacking and robbing him. On March 5, 1986, Williams had
brutally assaulted an elderly woman on West Green Street—
an incident he had mentioned in his letter to the police.
That confession was particularly damaging because other
evidence established that the woman was in a “vegetative
Id., at 60. Williams
state” and not expected to recover.
had also been convicted of arson for setting a ﬁre in the jail
while awaiting trial in this case. Two expert witnesses em-
ployed by the State testiﬁed that there was a “high probabil-

I just wanted to get back at him.

I went into the kitchen.
I was looking for something to use.

1 “ ‘I had gone to Dee Dee Stone’s house on Henry Street, Dee Dee’s
father was there. No one else was there except him. He had been drink-
ing a lot. He was on the bed. He asked me if I wanted a drink.
I told
I asked him if I could borrow a couple of dollars and he told
him, ‘No.’
me, ‘No.’ We started arguing and things started going around in my
head.
I don’t know what. He just laid
back like he had passed out. He was laying there talking and moaning to
himself.
I didn’t want
I went into the bathroom
to use it.
and I saw the mattock.
I picked up the mattock and I came back into the
room where he was at. He was laying on the bed. He was laying on his
back.
I took the mattock and I hit him on the chest with it. He raised
up and was gasping for his breath. He fell over to his side and I hit him
I went and put
in the back with the mattock. He fell back on the bed.
the mattock back in the bathroom.
I took
his wallet from his pocket. He had three dollars in it.
I got the three
dollars from it.
I left him there. He was still grasping for breath.’ ”
App. 4–5.

I came back into the room.

I saw the butcher knife.