Outgoing Governor Tom Corbett has signed the execution warrants for five people, all of which will are planned to be carried out in a 7 day time period in March. According to a press release issued by the governor’s office, the five men include Kenneth Hairston, Alfonso Sanchez, Robert Diamond, Kevin Mattison and Terrance Williams, all of whom will be executed by lethal injection.
Inside the list of execution warrants signed by Governor Corbett, there is a name that should ring a bell. In 2012, there was an uproar surrounding the pending execution of Terrance Williams. For the Raging Chicken Press, Alyssa Röhricht explained that Williams murdered two of his sexual abusers. At the age of 16, Williams killed Herbert Hamilton when Hamilton attacked Williams, and then at age 18 Williams confronted and murdered his other sexual abuser Amos Norwood. These details were later used to delay his execution.
Then days before his execution, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge issued a stay on Williams’ execution because the prosecutor suppressed evidence. Pennlive explained:
In a blistering opinion from the bench, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina ruled that the prosecution in Williams 1986 murder trial withheld evidence and sanitized witness statements to police before handing them over to the defense.
