Mentally ill inmate's death sentence commuted to life

ATLANTA - Following an outcry by advocates for the mentally ill, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles Monday commuted the death sentence of Alexander Williams to life in prison without parole. <br> <br> The board announced its decision after hearing from a panel of three psychiatrists who examined Williams last week. The inmate was facing lethal injection for the 1986 murder of a 16-year-old Augusta girl. <br> <br> The board issued a stay of execution February 19 that was set to expire at midnight. <br> <br> Williams, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was 17 in 1986 when he raped and murdered 16-year-old Aleta Bunch, who was kidnapped from an Augusta, Georgia mall where she had gone to buy her mother a birthday gift. <br> <br> Advocates for the mentally ill have protested the impending execution of Williams, now age 33. Other supporters, including religious leaders, and former first lady Rosalynn Carter, have sent letters to the parole board over the years. <br> <br> In a news release, board chairman Walter Ray said, ``We have deepest sympathy for the family of Aleta Bunch and especially her mother, Mrs. Carolyn Bunch.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The chairman added, ``The pain and devastation that Williams caused this family can never be erased. By making sure that Williams will remain in an eight-by-ten-foot prison cell for the rest of his life with absolutely no hope for parole, we hope that the certainty of our decision will give Mrs. Bunch the closure she so deserves.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Williams&#39; attorneys have argued that his paranoid schizophrenia was in its early stages when he committed the crime. Now, they say, the psychosis is so severe that he believes actress Sigourney Weaver is God and speaks to him. <br> <br> He has been forcibly medicated in prison for years. <br> <br> His lawyers also argue that the public no longer considers it decent to execute anyone for a crime committed as a juvenile.