JUST IN: kenneth dewayne williams Executed | Crime, Last Meal + Final Words | Death Row US Arkansas

On April 27th, 2017, after spending nearly 18 years on death row, Kenneth Dwayane Williams was executed by lethal injection at the Cumins unit in Grady, Arkansas. He was 38 years old. In this video, we will talk about what happened, his last words, and his last meal. but to uncover the events that led a former gang member to become known as the Arkansas death row preacher.

 A man who claimed to have found God and written books warning others against the life he once lived. We have to go back to December 1998 and a crime spree that would leave four innocent people dead. A college cheerleader executed in a parking lot. A man shot twice and left in a ditch. a prison escape hidden inside a barrel of pig slop, a former deputy warden murdered in his own home, and a young father killed during a high-speed chase.

 And after killing four innocent people, Kenneth Williams would transform himself into an ordained minister behind bars, begging for forgiveness and mercy. [music] But would it be enough to save his life? December 13th, 1998. A Sunday evening in Pineluff, Arkansas, 19-year-old Dominique Nikki Herd had just finished attending church with her boyfriend, Peter Robertson.

 Nikki was a cheerleader at the University of Arkansas at Pineluff. She was beautiful, ambitious, full of life. She had her whole future ahead of her. After church, Nikki and Peter decided to take some photos together in the parking lot of a Bonanza steakhouse. It was a simple, innocent moment. Two young people in love, capturing memories.

 They had no idea they were being watched. A man approached them. His name was Kenneth Dwayne Williams. He was 19 years old and the same age as Nikki. He offered to take their photo. Nikki and Peter smiled, grateful for the kind gesture. But then Kenneth pulled out a revolver. Everything changed in an instant. Kenneth ordered the couple into their car at gunpoint.

 He robbed them of their money, jewelry, and credit cards. Then he forced Peter to drive him to an ATM where he made Peter withdraw additional cash. But Kenneth wasn’t finished. He handed the camera to Peter and forced him to take pictures. Pictures of Kenneth posing with a terrified Nikki Herd. Then Kenneth lifted up Nikki’s dress, pulled down her underwear, and ordered Peter to keep taking photos.

The humiliation, the terror, the violation. Nikki was being tortured and there was nothing she could do. Kenneth asked where they were from. Nikki said she was from Dallas. Peter said he was from New Jersey. Kenneth’s face twisted with rage. I don’t like the n-words from Dallas anyway, he said. And then he started shooting.

 He emptied his revolver into the couple. Bullet after bullet. Nikki was shot in the head. She died instantly. Peter was shot multiple times, but miraculously survived. Kenneth drove off, leaving Nikki’s body in the parking lot, leaving Peter bleeding and broken beside her. But Kenneth Williams wasn’t done killing. [music] Not even close.

Because on that same day, December 13th, 1998, Kenneth had already committed another murder. Earlier that day, Kenneth had robbed a 36-year-old man named Gerald Jenkins. Kenneth shot Gerald twice in the chest with a.357 caliber handgun. Gerald’s body was found in a ditch the next morning by a child on their way to school. Two people dead in a single day.

A college cheerleader executed after being humiliated and terrorized. A man shot and dumped like garbage. Kenneth Williams was arrested within days. The evidence against him was overwhelming. Peter Robertson identified him. The camera with the horrific photos was recovered. Ballistics matched the gun. Kenneth was charged with capital murder, attempted capital murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, theft, and arson.

Kenneth went to trial in 1999. The prosecution laid out the evidence. the terror Nikki and Peter had endured, the execution style shooting, the cold-blooded murder of Gerald Jenkins. They sought the death penalty, but the jury gave Kenneth a life sentence instead. Kenneth had been spared. He would spend the rest of his life in prison, but he would live.

The Herd family was devastated. They had hoped for the death penalty. They believed Kenneth deserved to die for what he had done to their daughter. And then Kenneth did something that would haunt them forever. After learning he had been spared execution, Kenneth turned to Nikki’s family in the courtroom.

 He looked directly at them and he said, “You thought I was going to die, didn’t you?” He taunted them. He mocked their grief. He showed no remorse, no empathy, no humanity. Kenneth Williams was sent to the Cumins Unit, a maximum security prison in Arkansas, to begin serving his life sentence.

 But Kenneth had no intention of staying there. Less than a month after being sentenced, Kenneth would escape. And when he did, he would kill again. October 3rd, 1999. The Cumins Unit Prison in Grady, Arkansas. Kenneth Williams had been in prison for less than a month, but he had already been planning his escape. Kenneth worked in the prison kitchen.

 And one day, he noticed something. A truck would come to the prison to pick up a 500gallon barrel of pig slop, food waste that was fed to pigs on a nearby farm. The truck would drive into the prison, workers would load the barrel, and the truck would drive out. Kenneth realized this was his way out.

 On October 3rd, 1999, Kenneth went into the kitchen during his shift. He climbed inside the 500gallon barrel of pig slop. He submerged himself in the rotten food waste, holding his breath, waiting. The truck arrived. Workers loaded the barrel onto the truck, not realizing there was a man hidden inside. The truck drove out of the prison gates, and just like that, Kenneth Williams was free.

Once the truck was a safe distance from the prison, Kenneth burst out of the barrel covered in filth. She gasping for air, he jumped off the truck and ran into a ditch, hiding in the brush. Kenneth was out, but he had no money, no vehicle, no plan. He needed to disappear and fast. Just a couple of miles from the prison was a house.

 It belonged to a man named Cecil Borin. Ceil was 57 years old. He was a former deputy warden at the Cumins unit. [music] He knew the prison well. He knew the inmates. And when Kenneth Williams showed up at his door, Ceil probably recognized him. Kenneth shot Ceil Borne dead. He dragged Cecile’s body to a nearby bayou and dumped it in the water.

 Then Kenneth ransacked Ceil’s house. He took Cecile’s clothes and dressed himself in them, trying to blend in, trying to look like a normal person. He took several guns from Cecile’s collection and then he took Ceil’s pickup truck. Kenneth drove north heading toward Missouri. Putting as much distance between himself and the prison as possible.

 Kenneth had now killed three people, Nikki Herd, Gerald Jenkins, Ceil Borne. Three innocent lives taken by a man who had nothing but rage and selfishness inside him. But Kenneth wasn’t finished. The next day, October 4th, 1999, [music] Kenneth was driving through Lebanon, Missouri, in Cecil Borne’s stolen pickup truck. A police officer spotted the vehicle and ran the plates.

 The truck came back as stolen. The officer attempted to pull Kenneth over. Kenneth pulled over initially, but as the officer approached, Kenneth suddenly hit the gas and sped off. A high-speed chase ensued. Kenneth was driving recklessly, dangerously, at speeds reaching 120 mph. Other officers joined the chase. They pursued Kenneth for roughly 60 m through highways and back roads on sirens blaring, lights flashing.

 Kenneth wasn’t going to stop. He would rather die than go back to prison. And then suddenly, the chase came to a horrific end. Kenneth’s truck slammed into a vehicle in front of him. [music] The impact was catastrophic. The driver of that vehicle, a 24year-old man named Michael Greenwood, was ejected from his car. He was killed instantly.

Michael Greenwood was a Culligan water delivery truck driver. He was just trying to get to work. He had a family. He had a daughter named Kayla. And in an instant, Kenneth Williams had taken his life. Kenneth was arrested at the scene and according to witnesses after the crash Kenneth got out of his truck, walked over to Michael Greenwood’s body and spat on it. Four people dead.

 Dominique Herd, Gerald Jenkins, Ceassel Borne, Michael Greenwood, four innocent lives. I snuffed out by a man who cared about no one but himself. Kenneth Williams was charged with capital murder for the death of Cecile Borne with the underlying felonies of aggravated robbery and first-degree escape. This time there would be no mercy.

 On August 29th, 2000, Kenneth was convicted. The next day, he was sentenced to death. Kenneth Williams was going to die. Kenneth Dwayne Williams was born on February 23rd, 1979 in St. Lewis, Missouri, but was raised in Pineluff, Arkansas. Kenneth’s childhood was difficult. His parents both had learning difficulties. His mother was a drug addict who smoked while she was pregnant with Kenneth.

Kenneth’s father struggled with alcohol and crack cocaine addiction, and when he used, he became violent. Kenneth watched his father beat his mother. He watched the chaos, the dysfunction, the pain or and he internalized it. At age nine, Kenneth joined a street gang called the Gangster Disciples. By 11, he was molested by another boy.

After that, Kenneth became violent himself. He started getting into fights. He started hurting people. By the time Kenneth was 16, he was already in serious trouble. In 1996, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for first-degree escape and seconddegree battery. He was released on April 2nd, 1998. Just 8 months later, Kenneth would kill Dominique Herd and Jerel Jenkins.

Kenneth’s upbringing was tragic, but it doesn’t excuse what he did. Plenty of people grow up in difficult circumstances and don’t become murderers. Kenneth made choices, and those choices cost four people their lives. Kenneth was sent to death row at the Varner unit in Grady, Arkansas. For the first few years, Kenneth was angry, a defiant, unrepentant.

But something began to change. Kenneth started reading the Bible. He started attending chapel services. He started talking to the prison chaplain. And slowly, Kenneth began to transform. By the mid 2000s, Kenneth claimed he had found God. He said he was no longer the man who had killed four people. He said he had been born again, saved, redeemed.

Kenneth became an ordained Christian minister while on death row. He started calling himself the Arkansas death row preacher. He began holding Bible studies with other inmates. He counseledled them, prayed [music] with them, preached to them. Kenneth wrote two books. One was his autobiography detailing his life, his crimes, and his transformation.

The other was a book warning young people against gang life, urging them not to make the same mistakes he had made. In May 2005, a Kenneth wrote a letter to the Pineluff commercial newspaper. In the letter, he publicly apologized for his crimes. He said he had found God. He expressed remorse for what he had done to Nikki Herd, to Gerald Jenkins, to Cecile Borne, to Michael Greenwood.

 And in that letter, Kenneth also confessed to killing Gerald Jenkins, a crime he had never been formally charged with. In December 2005, Kenneth pleaded guilty to capital murder, aggravated robbery, and theft of property for killing Gerald Jenkins. He received another life sentence. Kenneth’s transformation seemed genuine to many people who knew him.

 Prison chaplain spoke highly of him. Other inmates said he had changed their lives. Kenneth’s family believed he was a different person. But the families of his victims didn’t buy it. To them, [music] Kenneth’s religious transformation was nothing more than a ploy, a way to gain sympathy, a way to avoid execution. They believed [music] Kenneth was manipulating people, playing the system, pretending to be remorseful, when in reality he was still the same cold-blooded killer who had taunted Nikki Herd’s family in court.

 Whether Kenneth’s transformation was real or not is something only Kenneth truly knew. What is certain is that for nearly 18 years, Kenneth Williams sat on death row waiting to die. He filed appeal after appeal. His attorneys argued that he was intellectually disabled, that he had organic brain damage, that he suffered from cickle cell trait and lupus, and that executing him would be unconstitutionally cruel.

Every appeal was denied. The courts ruled that Kenneth was not intellectually disabled. Tests showed he had low average intelligence, but he didn’t cooperate fully with the doctors testing him, making it difficult to get an accurate assessment. The courts also ruled that his medical conditions did not make him ineligible for execution.

Kenneth’s fate was sealed. He was going to die. In April 2017, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson made a controversial decision. He scheduled eight executions over an 11-day period. The reason, the state supply of mazolum, the drug used in lethal injections, was set to expire at the end of the month.

 Critics called it a conveyor belt of death, a rush to execute as many people as possible before the drugs went bad. Human rights organizations protested. Defense attorneys filed emergency appeals, but Governor Hutchinson was determined. A four of the eight scheduled executions were stayed by the courts, but four went forward.

 Liddell Lee was executed on April 20th. Jack Jones and Marcel Williams were executed on April 24th in the nation’s first double execution since 2000. And Kenneth Williams was scheduled to be the last set to die on April 27th. As Kenneth’s execution date approached, his attorneys filed lastminute appeals. They argued that Kenneth was intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution under the Supreme Court’s ruling in Atkins versus Virginia.

 They argued that Kenneth’s medical conditions, including cickle cell trait, lupus, and organic brain damage, would cause complications during the execution. They also pointed to the execution of Jack Jones just 3 days earlier. Imprisoned staff had tried for 45 minutes to place a central line in Jones’s neck, and witnesses reported that the execution appeared botched.

Kenneth’s attorneys argued that Arkansas’s lethal injection protocol was flawed and that executing Kenneth would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. All of the appeals were denied. The Arkansas Supreme Court denied the appeals. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the appeals. The US Supreme Court denied the appeals.

Kenneth Williams was going to die. But then something extraordinary happened. Kayla Greenwood, the daughter of Michael Greenwood, the man Kenneth had killed during the high-speed chase, did something almost unimaginable. She bought plane tickets for Kenneth’s daughter, Jasmine Johnson, and Kenneth’s three-year-old granddaughter, to fly from Washington State to Arkansas.

 Sha Kenneth hadn’t seen his daughter in 17 years. He had never met his granddaughter. Kayla Greenwood, the daughter of one of Kenneth’s victims, made it possible for Kenneth to see his family one last time. Kayla also wrote a letter to Governor Hutchinson asking him to grant clemency to Kenneth. She wrote, “Mr.

 Williams caused us all a great deal of pain. We still miss him and we still hurt. That does not mean that asking you to spare Mr. Williams is not the right thing to do. It is.” Kayla Greenwood believed that executing Kenneth would not bring her father back. She believed that mercy, not vengeance, was the right path. But not everyone agreed.

 The Borne family, the family of Cecile Borne, the former deputy warden Kenneth had murdered, supported the execution. They believed Kenneth deserved to die for what he had done. And under Arkansas state law, the governor was only required to notify the relatives of the person whose killing led to the death sentence.

 In Kenneth’s case, that was the Borne family. Governor Hutchinson denied the clemency petition. Kenneth Williams would be executed as scheduled. Kenneth spent his final days on death row meeting with his daughter and granddaughter. [music] He held his granddaughter in his arms. He told his daughter he loved her. He apologized for the pain he had caused.

He prayed with the prison chaplain. He read the Bible. And he [music] prepared to die. April 27th, 2017. Kenneth [music] Williams final day on Earth. At 7:16 p.m., Governor Asa Hutchinson announced a courtesy pause on Kenneth’s execution. The US Supreme Court was still considering motions for a stay, and the governor wanted to give them time to make a decision.

 McKenneth waited in a holding cell just feet away from the execution chamber. His attorneys waited, his family waited, the families of his victims waited. At 10:13 p.m., the US Supreme Court denied all motions for a stay. Kenneth’s execution would proceed. Kenneth was moved into the execution chamber at the Cumins unit.

 He was strapped to a gurnie, his arms extended, IV lines inserted into his veins. Witnesses began gathering in the observation room. Among them were family members of Kenneth’s victims, including relatives of Cecil Borne and Michael Greenwood. Also present were Kenneth’s spiritual adviser, and members of the media.

 Kenneth’s last meal consisted of two pieces of fried chicken with a side of sweet rice, BBQ pinto beans, a slice of bread, a peanut butter cookie, and a cinnamon roll. But Kenneth also requested something else and he asked for the sacrament of communion to be provided by his spiritual adviser. Kenneth took communion one last time, his final act of faith before his death.

At 10:52 p.m., the warden asked Kenneth if he had any final words. Kenneth had prepared a written statement. He read it aloud. I humbly extend my sincerest of apologies to the families I senselessly wronged and deprived of their loved ones. The families of Dominique Herd, Gerald Jenkins, Ceel Borne, Michael Greenwood.

I was more than wrong. The crimes I perpetrated against you all was senseless, extremely hurtful, and inexcusable. I humbly beg you your forgiveness and pray you find the peace, healing, [music] and closure you all deserve. Kenneth then began to speak in tongues, a practice in some Christian traditions where believers speak in a language unknown to them.

 He believed to be a form of prayer guided by the Holy Spirit. The words that I speak will forever be will forever, Kenneth said. and then he fell silent as the mitozoleum took effect. At 10:52 p.m. the execution drugs began to be administered. Arkansas used a three drug protocol for executions. The first drug was mitozolum, a seditive intended to render the inmate unconscious.

The second drug was vicuronium broomemide, a paralytic that stops breathing. The third drug was potassium chloride, which stops the heart. The drugs entered Kenneth’s bloodstream, and then something went wrong. At 10:55 p.m., just 3 minutes after the drugs were administered, Kenneth began to shake. His body convulsed.

 He lurched forward. [music] His movements were violent, erratic. Witnesses in the observation room watched in horror. Kelly, I had a reporter for the Associated Press who had witnessed 10 executions, said, “This is the most I’ve seen an inmate move.” 3 or 4 minutes in. Kissle’s pulled notes described Kenneth as coughing, convulsing, lurching, jerking.

 Kenneth lurched forward 15 times, then another five times more slowly. [music] The sounds were audible, even with the microphone turned off in the execution chamber. Kenneth’s chest heaved. He breathed through his mouth. He moaned or groaned once during a consciousness check. The witnesses were shaken. Some turned away.

 Others watched, unable to look away from the horrifying scene. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Kenneth’s body went still. His chest stopped moving. His heart stopped beating. At 11:05 p.m., Kenneth Williams was pronounced dead. to the entire process had taken 13 minutes from the time the drugs were administered. But those 13 minutes were brutal, disturbing, and deeply troubling.

 After the execution, there was immediate controversy. Media witnesses reported that Kenneth’s execution had been botched, that he had suffered, that the Mazolum had not [music] worked as intended. But Arkansas officials told a different story. Governor Asa Hutchinson said that Arkansas Department of Correction Director Wendy Kelly had reported that Kenneth coughed without sound and that the execution had gone smoothly.

Arkansas State Senator Trent Garner, who witnessed the execution, said on Twitter, “The inmate did not suffer or seem in pain. His face was calm. It was not cruel, unusual, botched, or torture.” Little Rock TV anchor Donna Terrell said that Kenneth’s chest had gone up and down rapidly for a time, but that his face was expressionless and it didn’t appear as if he were in pain.

So, what really happened? Did Kenneth suffer during his execution, or was his body simply reacting involuntarily to the drugs? J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Governor Hutchinson, called it an involuntary muscular reaction that he said was a widely known effect of mito. Governor Hutchinson said he remained confident in the state’s lethal injection protocol and saw no reason for an independent investigation.

But Kenneth’s attorney, Shawn Nolan, called the accounts horrifying. He said this is very disturbing but not at all surprising given the history of the risky sedative midazoleum which has been used in many botched executions. Mazolum had been used in several controversial executions in recent years. In 2014, Dennis Maguire in Ohio gasped and convulsed for 10 minutes.

 Joseph Wood in Arizona snorted and gulped for air for 2 hours. Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma writhed for 43 minutes before succumbing to a heart attack. Critics of the death penalty argued that mazizolum was unreliable, that it didn’t render inmates fully unconscious, and that it caused needless suffering. Supporters of the death penalty argued that the movements were simply involuntary reactions, that the inmates were unconscious and not in pain.

 The debate continues to this day. US District Judge Christine Baker ordered Arkansas to conduct a full autopsy on Kenneth and to save vials of his blood and tissue samples until further order of this court. The autopsy was conducted, but the results were never made public. Arkansas has not executed anyone since Kenneth Williams.

It has now been over 7 years since that night in April 2017. Kenneth Williams’ execution was the 200th execution in Arkansas since 1913 and the 140th black man killed by the state. After the execution, Carmelita Donald, the woman Kenneth had shot four times in 1998, the woman he had left permanently blinded, did not speak publicly.

 But we know she supported the execution. She believed Kenneth deserved to die for what he had done to her, for what he had done to Dominique Herd, for what he had done to all of his victims [music] and the families of Artha Sanders and Shaunie Murphy. Wait, I need to correct that. Those were victims from a different case. Let me refocus on Kenneth’s victims.

The Herd family, the family of Dominique, finally saw justice after 19 years. They had waited since 1998 for this moment. They believed Kenneth’s death brought closure. [music] The family of Gerald Jenkins, the man shot and left in a ditch, also felt a sense of justice. The Borne family, the family of Ceil Borne, believed the execution was the right outcome.

 But the Greenwood family, the family of Michael Greenwood, was divided. Kayla Greenwood had opposed the execution, had asked for mercy, had even helped Kenneth see his family one last time. But other members of the Greenwood family may have felt differently. The pain Kenneth caused was immeasurable. Four families torn apart. A four innocent lives taken and all because of one man’s choices.

Kenneth’s daughter, Jasmine Johnson, was devastated. She had traveled across the country to see her father one last time. She had brought his granddaughter, a little girl who would never know her grandfather except through stories. Jasmine believed her father had changed, that he had become a man of God, that he deserved to live.

 But the state of Arkansas disagreed. Kenneth Williams spent the last 17 years of his life on Arkansas’s death row. He went from a violent gang member to a man who claimed to have found redemption through faith. He wrote books, preached to other inmates, apologized for his crimes. But in the end, [music] it wasn’t enough. The crimes were too heinous.

 The pain was too deep. The justice demanded was too strong. Kenneth Williams died at age 38 on on a Thursday night in April 2017 in a prison execution chamber with witnesses watching through glass, his body convulsing and lurching as drugs flowed through his veins. Whether his transformation was real or not, whether his remorse was genuine or not, whether his faith was true or not, we’ll never know for certain.

 What we do know is this. Kenneth Williams killed four innocent people. He terrorized and humiliated a young college cheerleader before executing her. He shot a man and left him in a ditch. He murdered a former prison official in cold blood. And he killed a young father during a reckless escape attempt nearly 18 years on death row.

 A religious transformation that some believed and others doubted. Books written. Apologies given, clemency denied, and finally on a spring night in 2017, a needle in the arm, a body that convulsed and jerked, and a heart that stopped beating. The case of Kenneth Dwayne Williams is now closed. A gang member turned killer.

 A man who showed no mercy to his victims. A death row inmate who claimed to have found God. a preacher who tried to save others from the life he had lived. And in the end, a condemned man who died by lethal injection. His final words, a plea for forgiveness. His final moments shrouded in controversy and pain. Justice, such as it is, was served.