The systematic brutality that 5-year-old Talia Williams suffered at the hands of her father and stepmother is enough to test the resolve of even ardent opponents of the death penalty. The crimes were heinous, committed against a helpless, disabled child, who was beaten, stomped, tied up, starved and neglected for months before suffering the brain injury that ultimately killed her. Her father, convicted of inflicting the fatal blow, is undoubtedly guilty. Still, Naeem Williams should not be executed for this crime.
A sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole is the just sentence here, one that holds Williams responsible for his daughter’s death and also upholds Hawaii’s steadfast moral opposition to capital punishment. Talia’s stepmother, Delilah Williams, was equally culpable in the relentless suffering that Talia endured, yet will walk free by 2025, perhaps earlier, thanks to a deal with federal prosecutors seeking to justify the death penalty in a state that rejects the vengeful practice.
Delilah Williams’ plea agreement required her to testify during her husband’s trial about the events that culminated with Talia’s fatal beating on July 16, 2005, in the dysfunctional family’s quarters at Wheeler Army Airfield. She fulfilled that requirement in horrifyingly vivid detail, implicating her husband and herself as vicious, sadistic abusers. Of course, by then Delilah’s light sentence was set. Only Naeem Williams could face death.
Despite Hawaii’s ban against capital punishment, U.S. prosecutors had the authority to elevate the case in federal court because the crime occurred on U.S. government property. It is unfortunate that the Department of Justice exercised that option, thereby dismissing Hawaii’s community standards and guaranteeing an unfair resolution in this case.
Justice would have been served more fully had both abusers faced life in prison. There was evidence from the outset to pursue that outcome, but in their zeal for testimony supporting the death penalty against Naeem Williams, prosecutors cut Delilah Williams a sweetheart deal. Had Talia survived another day, it could just have easily been Delilah who struck the fatal blow — such was the nature of the daily torture Talia endured.
It’s important to note, too, that although Naeem and Delilah Williams are directly responsible for Talia’s death, others failed to save her. A doctor dismissed the signs of abuse a teacher had reported; military police brushed off neighbors’ calls to the home; there was little followup when Talia stopped going to school.
Hawaii’s territorial Legislature was wise to outlaw capital punishment in 1957, recognizing that the penalty was disproportionately imposed against non-white defendants during an era when minority groups wielded far less political, economic and social clout in the islands than they do today. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, nearly all 49 people executed in Hawaii before the ban were Native Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese or Filipino; the last execution was in 1944. Naeem Williams is African-American, a small minority in Hawaii, while Delilah Williams describes herself on her prison pen-pal page as Korean-Chamorro. Given that the former Army specialist’s life is on the line, questions about inequitable punishment for the two guilty parties should not be dismissed.
The state-sanctioned killing of convicted criminals is revenge, not justice — no matter how brutal the crime. Freeing one tormentor after 20 years and killing the other does not equal justice for Talia. The former sentence cannot be corrected, but the latter can be averted. Naeem Williams should spend the rest of his life in prison, where he belongs.
