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| Texas, Mississippi Execute Inmates |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/13/2002 |
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A man who insisted on defending himself during his trial for the 1995 shooting deaths of a woman and her son was executed in Texas by injection Wednesday. Meanwhile, in Mississippi, a man was executed for the 1983 rape and mutilation murder of an 18-year-old woman, that state's second execution in 13 years. In Texas, James Collier, 56, became the state's 33rd inmate to be put to death, and the last execution scheduled this year. Authorities believe Collier planned to kidnap his 13-year-old daughter when he took a shotgun to the Wichita Falls home of her stepfather, whom she was visiting in March 1995. After firing shots through the glass storm door, he entered, killing Timothy Reed, 31, and Reed's mother, Gwendolyn, 51, who were living with the girl's stepfather. Collier didn't know either of the victims; he confessed to the killing after police caught him in New Mexico. 'I only want to say that I appreciate the hospitality that you guys have shown me and the respect,' Collier said to the chaplain and warden as he awaited execution. Collier's court-appointed attorney, prosecutors and the judge had unsuccessfully attempted to dissuade him from representing himself at his trial. In Mississippi, Jessie Williams, 51, was convicted and sentenced to death for slashing the throat of Karon Pierce, then mutilating her body. He was executed by injection at the state penitentiary in Parchman. As she watched Williams die, the victim's mother, Waldine Riley, said, 'I wish to God she had the opportunity to die that peaceful.' The execution was Mississippi's second in 13 years; the other was in July. It was carried out about two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Williams' last-minute appeal. |
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