TEXARKANA -- The second jury to consider the fate of a man convicted 21 years ago of killing a Bradley farmer handed down a sentence of life without the possibility of parole last week.
Frank Williams Jr., 47, was previously sentenced to die by a Lafayette County jury that found him guilty of capital murder in 1993. The Arkansas Supreme Court recently overturned Williams' death sentence and ordered a new punishment trial.
A jury of nine women and three men was chosen at the Miller County Courthouse near downtown Texarkana earlier this month to decide whether Williams should receive the death penalty or life without parole in the killing of farmer Clyde Spence.
The case was moved from Lafayette County to Miller County because of more than two decades of publicity.
"We respect the jury's decision and appreciate their service," 8th Judicial Circuit South Prosecuting Attorney Carlton Jones said last Wednesday, the day the jury handed down its decision.
At Williams' second punishment trial, Jones and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Griffin asked the jury to again assess a death sentence.
"The Spence family is still suffering," Griffin argued in closing remarks. "Clyde Spence is the one man that was doing everything he could to help Mr. Williams. He was giving him breaks that nobody else would give him. Mr. Spence has now been gone a long time, but I can assure you there are people in Lafayette County and family members that have not forgotten him."
Williams' defense team argued that Williams was ineligible for the death penalty because he is mentally challenged. Little Rock lawyer Blake Hendrix told the jury Williams suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, was raised in poverty and that other factors about Williams weighed in favor of a sentence of life without parole rather than death.
The state's version of what happened the night Williams shot Spence in the doorway of Spence's home differed slightly from that of the defense.
The prosecutors argued that Williams killed Spence on Oct. 7, 1992, because Spence fired him for damaging a tractor. Jones told the jury that Williams went to Spence's home, knocked on the door and said he wanted to talk when Spence came to the door in a pair of pajama pants.
In closing remarks, Jones and Griffin told the jury that Williams fired two shots from a .25-caliber pistol. One shot missed, and the other struck Spence in the head, killing him where he stood.
Hendrix told the jury that Williams made a bad decision and had been confused after catching sight of a .38-caliber handgun found after the shooting on the kitchen counter in the Spence home.
According to the Arkansas Department of Correction website, Williams was convicted of forgery and aggravated assault in 1991 and sentenced to five years for each offense. He was convicted of theft of property and breaking and entering in 1993. Williams received a six-year term for the theft and a 10-year sentence for breaking and entering.
In second ...
State Desk on 07/23/2014