No More Executions Imminent in State

The relatively brisk pace of executions in California this year--two men put to death within three months, compared with the previous total of two in nearly 30 years--is expected to slow, at least for now.

Triple murderer Keith Daniel Williams became the latest man executed by the state early Friday, dying in apparent tranquillity as a blend of lethal drugs flowed through his veins.

Williams, 48, who bragged “I love to kill” after murdering three people he hardly knew over a $1,500 check, was declared dead at 12:08 a.m., five minutes after being injected.

“Today, we have put an end to this sad and regrettable chapter in California’s history,” said Gov. Pete Wilson.

Williams looked pale and resigned as the curtains shrouding the death chamber were drawn.

After technicians inserted IVs into his arm, he raised himself up slightly, making eye contact with supporters in the witness gallery.

Shortly after the execution started, Williams’ chin jerked slightly, then his chest heaved. After that, he lay still, the only visible sign of his death a darkening of the face.

On Feb. 23, “Freeway Killer” William Bonin had died in a similar manner.

The month before that, William Kirkpatrick Jr., who had commanded authorities to “give me my execution date and kill me!” came within days of execution before changing his mind and deciding to pursue his remaining appeals.

Before Bonin’s execution, only two men had been executed since capital punishment was reinstated in California in 1978--Robert Alton Harris in 1992 and David Mason in 1993.

Harris, like Bonin and Williams, had run out of appeals. Mason had refused to take his case to the federal court system after the state Supreme Court turned him down.

The next execution is not likely to happen for several months, probably not until next year, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Among the 438 condemned prisoners in California, only one, Alfred Dyer of Oakland, has had his case argued before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the next-to-last stop in the federal appellate process.

Dyer, 43, was convicted of two murders and two attempted murders in a November 1980 incident that started when he accused one of the victims of stealing his costume jewelry rings.

Witnesses said Dyer, who had been sharing heroin and cocaine with the victims, became angry and took four people to the Oakland hills, where they were forced to lie down and were shot by Dyer and his accomplices. Two people survived.

His death sentence was upheld unanimously in 1988 by the state Supreme Court, which rejected defense arguments that the jury should have been told two other defendants in the case had been sentenced to life in prison.

His appeal was rejected by a federal judge in December 1994 and was argued before the appeals court last December.

Two other cases are awaiting argument before the court, and all the others are in earlier stages of appeal, said Matt Ross, spokesman for Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren.

Williams was sentenced to die for the 1978 Merced County murders of cousins Miguel and Salvador Vargas, and Lourdes Meza, a young mother and Miguel Salvador’s girlfriend.

Williams later admitted that he shot the two men at a house and then, with a confederate, Robert Leslie Tyson, drove Meza, 24, to a remote location and shot her four times.

Prosecutors said that when Williams returned to the car after shooting Meza, he told Tyson, “I love to kill.”

According to the attorney general’s office, Williams bragged to Tyson that he was having sex with Meza when he shot her. Her body was too decomposed to yield evidence of sexual assault, and Williams was acquitted of rape.

Williams’ lawyers had claimed that he was mentally ill and should have been treated, not killed, but the Supreme Court turned down those arguments.