Williams v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseRichard Williams, II, was tried by jury and convicted of murder in connection with the strangulation death of Cory Robinson. Williams and Robinson were involved in a sexual relationship and had been living together at an extended-stay hotel. Kelvin Spencer was a close friend of both Williams and Robinson. When Spencer met Williams at the hotel room, Williams looked angry and had scratches on his neck. Spencer saw Robinson lying on the floor in a “praying position.” Spencer did not believe Robinson was dead, and he helped Williams move clothes and other things to a U-Haul truck parked outside, in preparation for a move. Williams did not testify or present any evidence. Based on his lawyer’s opening and closing arguments, the defense theory was that Spencer killed Robinson because he was jealous of Williams’s relationship with Robinson. Williams’s sole claim on appeal was that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel when his trial lawyer failed to present as a defense that Williams accidentally killed Robinson during consensual erotic asphyxiation. He argued that his lawyer's discomfort with the topic of homosexual BDSM activity, and his own problems with the Georgia State Bar, precluded presentation of the "true" version of events, and that Williams acceded to the lawyer's defense strategy only "through ignorance and that he did not know that a defense based on consensual erotic asphyxiation was available." Finding no reversible error, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed conviction.
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