Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Law gets first trial test Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD Law gets first trial test \SH Defendant faces life without parole \BY Catherine Toups \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Opening arguments begin today in the murder trial of James Carroll Williams, the first person facing life imprisonment without parole under a law the D.C. Council passed in April. Mr. Williams, a 41-year-old homeless man, is charged with setting an abandoned row house on fire in retaliation for a $20 crack cocaine debt. Three persons died in the May fire, and a fourth was disfigured. The First Degree Murder Amendment Act of 1992 was among a flood of anti-crime laws passed by the council this year in response to a wave of violence that led Congress to call for a restoration of the death penalty in the nation's capital. "These [measures] should send a stronger message to these youngsters out in our communities. I hope it will at least cause them to stop and think before they pull the trigger," council member H.R. Crawford said when the bill was approved. The sentence can only be imposed against someone who committed a crime that meets aggravating circumstances listed in the law. The crime Mr. Williams is accused of meets two criteria: The deaths occurred during the commission of an arson, and more than one person died in the incident. Some of the other crimes listed in the law are murders committed during a kidnapping, robbery, rape, sexual offense, or drive-by or random shooting, and those that happen as a result of the victim's race, religion or sexual orientation. Jurors will not be told the government wants a life sentence without parole for Mr. Williams. As in any trial, jurors will be told they should not consider the penalty for the crime during their deliberations on guilt or innocence. Anyone convicted of a life-without-parole charge faces a separate sentencing hearing to determine if the crimes meet the aggravating circumstances. According to court records, Mr. Williams tossed a Molotov cocktail into a row house at 918 Third St. NW in the early hours of May 15. Octavia Pressley, 36, George Kilbourn, 46, and Calvin Jones, 29, died from burns on more than 90 percent of their bodies. Two of them escaped the building and left bloody footprints on a sidewalk. William Daniels, 29, was severely burned and suffered disfiguring injuries, according to the indictment against Mr. Williams. The firebombing was done in retaliation for a crack cocaine debt and came after an argument over whether one of the victims had taken Mr. Williams' bed space in the abandoned house, prosecutors said. Life-without-parole charges have been filed against a second suspect, federal prosecutors said. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM