Dobie Gillis Williams

In 2005, Williams was one of two subjects of a book by Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun and anti-death penalty activist. She contended that Williams could not have possibly committed the murder and was wrongfully convicted and executed. She believed that he had ineffective legal counsel; his lawyer was later disbarred for incompetence. She also notes that poor and minority people are disproportionately sentenced to death and executed in the United States criminal justice system.

In 2005, Williams was one of the subjects of Sister Prejean's book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions. She noted that the defense had been weak, failing to discuss his low IQ of 65, which is below the range establishing mental retardation (now referred to as intellectual disability). Such people may be suggestible and it may have contributed to his confessing to officers. The attorney also failed to discuss mitigating factors such as abuse in his childhood. His lawyer was later disbarred for incompetence.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) that it was unconstitutional for the death penalty to be imposed on persons with intellectual disability, but allowed states to set the standard by which condition would be determined.

Dobie Gillis Williams (1961 – January 8, 1999) was an American criminal in Louisiana who was convicted of the murder of Sonja Knippers in 1984, and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1999. His case has been controversial.

On January 8, 1999, Williams was executed by lethal injection at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. He ate twelve candy bars and some ice cream for his last meal. In his final statement, he said, "I just want to say, I don't have any hard feelings against anybody. God bless y'all. God bless."

Police contended that he confessed, although they had no recording. He was evaluated as intellectually disabled, according to one standard, but his defense attorney failed to discuss this or mitigating factors from his childhood. Williams' execution was twice stayed and his sentence was overturned by a federal district court judge. But Williams was executed because the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mitigating information was introduced to the jury too late in the case. It ruled that the execution had to proceed, under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA).

A federal court judge overturned Williams' sentence, but the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled, and the execution went forward. The 5th Circuit said that mitigating information had been introduced to a jury too late in the process, and upheld his sentence under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA).

An intruder entered the rural home of Herbert and Sonja Knippers in the early morning hours of July 8, 1984. He appeared to gain entry by stacking two milk crates outside the Knippers' bathroom window and cutting the screen. After Sonja entered the bathroom some time later, the attacker tried to rape her and began stabbing her with a knife.

The defendant's motion for a change of venue was granted, which resulted in the transfer of the case to the 35th Judicial District Court in Grant Parish. An all-white jury was seated for the trial.