_smuts_ _ku_WEDNESDAY
| Snubbed Mixed nuts December 3,1997
Nebraska senior quarterback Scott Frost was Hundreds of productions of “The Nutcracker”
snubbed by the Big 12 Coaches, who selected have been performed each year. But every com- FROSTED
him as third team all-conference.PAGE 8 pany flavors its performance differently. PAGE 10 Light snow, high 34. Partly
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VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 69
‘The book is closed’
•i —
: Williams
I 3rd to die
| in 4 years
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Described by witnesses as serene, Robert E.
Williams was put to death Tuesday morning,
becoming the third prisoner to die in Nebraska’s
% electric chair since 1959.
Fighting the sentence for 19 years, Williams
said in his final statement he was “on my way
home.”
'S&' “I just appieciate Jiiyjng long enough to he
blessed by somany people that God has led into
l my life, and my last statement would be that I
| hope that this incident will inspire other people
* to Find another way,” he said in his final state
ment at 8:50 a.m.
Williams was convicted in Lincoln in 1978
for the murders of Patricia McGarry and
Catherine Brooks in 1977. Williams shot
McGarry in the face during an argument, and
then raped and murdered Brooks, who came to
McGarry’s aid. He was originally sentenced to
death for both murders, but one death sentence
was thrown out on appeal.
The double murder was the beginning of a
three-state rampage that started with another
9 rape in Lincoln the next day and the murder of
* Virginia Rowe in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, the day
after that.
The next day, Williams kidnapped a railroad
worker and kidnapped, shot twice, raped and
dumped a St. Paul, Minn., woman - who sur
vived - in a field. He was arrested in Lincoln
eight days after the double homicide.
Wayne Earl Rowe, who found his wife’s
naked, bloody body in their bed in 1977, was
allowed to witness the execution by Nebraska
State Penitentiary administrators. He said see
ing Williams die gave him closure to his wife’s
murder.
“It just didn’t take long,” he said. “I had to
wait for 20 years for this.
“I didn’t think it could be true that it was
happening.”
Strapped to the electric chair, moments away
from his death, Williams apologized to Rowe.
Please see WILLIAMS on 2
Ryan Soderlin/DN
KAREN SWEATMAN OF GRAND ISLAND cries during the prayer vigil for Robert E. Williams outside the state penitentiary Tuesday morning.
Sweatman said she has been against the death penalty for 20 years and that it is wrong to fight violence with violence.
Witnesses to execution share feelings
Friend calls inmate’s
faith strong, genuine
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
From the Bible’s 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes, Joy
Stevens pointed out Tuesday afternoon that if one
remembers God before death, God takes his soul to
heaven before the body dies.
On Tuesday morning, she said, she saw it first
hand as she watched her friend Robert E. Williams
executed for murder.
“He was out of there before that electricity
attacked his body,” Stevens said from her home in
Fort Calhoun.
Stevens was one of four witnesses Williams
Please see FRIEND on 6
Inside:
■ Iowa family says
they can forgive
Williams, but not for
get his actions. Page 2
■ Protesters for and
against capital pun
ishment gathered
around Lincoln
Tuesday. Pages 6-7
Condemned man calm
at end, witnesses say
By Ted Taylor
Senior Reporter
A smiling Robert E. Williams was not what
media witnesses expected to see Tuesday, moments
before the death row inmate died in the electric chair.
But even while strapped into the chair that would
soon take his life, Williams appeared happy - confi
dent that he was going to a better place, witnesses
said.
Williams’ smile, along with what witnesses
repeatedly described as a very “calm, composed and
serene” demeanor, helped make their experience as
official witnesses easier, said Brad Stephens, co
Please see WITNESSES on 6
Academic Senate votes no classes on King day
*■;
By Sarah Baker
Assignment Reporter
After hours of debate, the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Academic Senate voted 41-2 at its
Tuesday meeting to observe Martin
Luther King Jr.’s birthday on campus
by canceling classes.
The senate voted to endorse
King’s birthday by instituting a set of
programs, workshops and other activ
ities to commemorate King, and to
cancel classes on that day to allow
students and faculty members to
attend the events.
The proposal also specifies that a
day in the semester will be set aside
for students to make up classes that
would be missed because of the holi
day. The use of die makeup class day
is left to the discretion of the instruc
tor.
The senate amended the original
proposal to specify that a day will be
set aside to during the semester for
makeup classes rather than a
Saturday.
Academic Senate President Jim
Ford declared the proposal an emer
gency issue and said he wanted to get
the sense of the body.
“I think the main issue that is
dividing us is whether or not to sup
port canceling classes,” he said.
Richard Edwards, senior vice
chancellor for academic affairs,
urged the senate to vote for the origi
nal proposal.
“It is time for UNL to have a King
holiday,” Edwards said. “We should
have a day to use for education con
cerning one of the most historical fig
ures in our history.”
Leo Sartori, physics professor
and a member of the Calendar
Committee, said this senate vote is
used as a vote to guide the calendar
Please see SENATE on 3
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http:! I www.unt.edu!DailyNeb