There is no capital punishment under Hawaii law.
But former Schofield Barracks soldier Naeem Williams faced the death penalty for killing his 5-year-old daughter Talia under federal law. The crime occurred in military family quarters on Wheeler Army Air Field, property under U.S. government jurisdiction.
And Williams is not the first person in Hawaii to face the death penalty since the territorial Legislature abolished capital punishment in 1957.
In 1998 a federal grand jury in Hawaii returned an indictment against career criminal Richard Lee Tuk "China" Chong, charging him with capital murder for fatally shooting another man over a $100 drug debt.
According to a 2010 Report to the Committee on Defender Services Judicial Conference of the United States, by the time Chong was indicted, then-Attorney General Janet Reno had in place a procedure to review all death-eligible cases, not just those in which the local prosecutors wished to pursue the death penalty. In cases that she designated for the death penalty, U.S. attorneys could negotiate a plea bargain without her approval.
In practice, however, Reno rarely exercised her authority to overrule a U.S. attorney’s recommendation against the death penalty, the report said.
In Chong’s case, then-U.S. Attorney in Hawaii Steven Alm did recommend the death penalty, and Reno approved.
During the final stages of jury selection, Michael Weight, one of Chong’s lawyers, said the government offered Chong a deal — plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Chong accepted, pleaded guilty and later attempted but failed to withdraw his guilty plea. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
In 2001, three months after getting sentenced, Chong committed suicide in a federal penitentiary in California.
Weight said Reno had no involvement in the plea negotiations.
"We felt that it was Steve Alm 100 percent," he said.
When George W. Bush became president in 2000, his attorneys general began making death penalty decisions with less deference to local prosecutors, the Defender Services Judicial Conference report said.
In 2006, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez designated Williams’ case for the death penalty, despite a recommendation against it from U.S. Attorney in Hawaii Edward Kubo.
After Barack Obama became president, Williams’ lawyers made an extraordinary offer to let the government question Williams in the hope that a new administration in Washington would agree to let Williams plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.
"That was the hope," said Williams’ lawyer Michael Burt.
The FBI and federal prosecutors questioned Williams over two days in January 2012. The exchange, however, did not result in a plea deal.
When Williams’ jury failed to impose the death penalty, U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni said a life prison term with no opportunity for release is "the" appropriate sentence. She later said the life term is "an" appropriate sentence.
