Board reverses decision to release inmate's psychiatric report
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Posted 7:44AM on Tuesday 5th March 2002 ( 23 years ago )
ATLANTA - The state Board of Pardons and Paroles has reversed its decision to release the psychiatrists' report that helped save a psychotic killer from lethal injection. <br>
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After deciding last week to commute the death sentence of Alexander Williams, board members agreed to release the transcripts from a meeting with three psychiatrists. <br>
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On Monday, the five members said in a written statement that some of the information concerning Williams' mental health could not be made public because it ``constitutes a medical record that we cannot release.'' <br>
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The commutation of the sentence was controversial. <br>
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``With a decision that carries as much significance as this does, they should give their reasons,'' said Ken Hodges, immediate past president of the District Attorneys Association. ``It's left a lot of people to question how far the board will go.'' <br>
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Carolyn Bunch, the mother of the 16-year-old girl Williams kidnapped from an Augusta mall, raped and murdered in 1986, said the report would help her understand the board's decision. <br>
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Williams might have been the first person in the United States who had to be forcibly medicated to make him sane enough to be executed. That - along with his age at the time of the crime, 17 - drew international attention to his case. <br>
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The board did not give a reason last week for commuting Williams' sentence, but it came just a few hours after hearing from three psychiatrists hired specifically to examine him.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/3/197908
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