The State of Alabama on Thursday executed Jeremy Williams for the 2021 rape and murder of a young Georgia girl. Williams asked for his death sentence to be carried out swiftly, which happened by lethal injection.
“I want to thank God for forgiving me for my sins so I can meet him in peace,” Williams said on the gurney. He rocked his head back and forth, smiled and appeared to sing or speak before becoming still. A member of his family cried quietly throughout, and Williams was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m.
Williams, who pleaded guilty to killing Kamarie Holland, had written the Alabama attorney general’s office seeking an immediate execution date so his victim’s family “may have some type of closure.”
The 42-year-old raped and strangled Holland after offering her mother $2,500 for the child to perform a sex act, prosecutors said, adding he filmed his attack.
“The unspeakable nature of this crime is exactly why we have the death penalty statute,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement afterward.
The mother is serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex trafficking.
Russell County District Attorney Richard Chancey described Kamarie’s final moments as “horrific.”
“That baby didn’t die in peace,” he said at a later news conference, recalling Williams’ last words about dying in peace.
Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor, who called the case the worst he’d investigated in 39 years of law enforcement, said he believed Williams sought swift execution over worries about how he would be treated in prison.
“He didn’t want to look over his shoulder for 30 years, in my opinion,” Taylor said.
It was Alabama’s first execution this year. A nitrogen gas execution was blocked in June after a federal judge ruled the method unconstitutional.
Williams also was a suspect in the 2005 death of his infant daughter in Alaska, but charges weren’t filed until 2022.
Corey Holland, Kamarie’s father, had said she was an exuberant child who loved princesses and made people laugh.
“She loved playing dress-up, all her little Halloween costumes and her princess stuff I got her,” he said.