Alexander McClay Williams

Williams was born on July 23, 1914. He had at least ten siblings, including a sister named Susie Williams-Carter, who was Williams's only surviving sibling by 2015; Williams-Carter was still alive in 2022 when Williams's conviction was overturned.[1][2] Williams grew up in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, raised by an illiterate father, and was very physically slight, standing at 4 feet, 7 inches (139 cm) and 91 pounds. He also had learning disabilities.[3]

At the time of the murder, Williams was enrolled in the Glen Mills Schools, a reform institution in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, after committing crimes involving arson to a barn that caused $25,000 in damage, and burglarizing a post office when he was 12 years old.[1] Williams was at the school from July 1926 until the murder.[4] He lived in the same cottage as Vida Robare, a matron at the Glen Mills Schools, along with forty other black teenagers until approximately four months prior to Robare's murder; Robare allegedly ordered him relocated to a different cottage due to him repeatedly breaking rules while living there.[5][6]

Vida Robare worked at the Glen Mills Schools alongside Fred Robare, an agriculture instructor who, according to contemporaneous news reports, was her husband; later research by the grandson of Williams's attorney revealed that the Robares were actually divorced before the killing on the grounds of Fred Robare's "extreme cruelty" and domestic abuse towards Vida.[7][8]

Early reports of Robare's killing claimed that Fred, misidentified as her husband, returned home from work on October 3, 1930, and stumbled across the crime scene.[9] He alerted police afterwards, who arrived to find Robare lying in her bed, partially clothed, with over 35 stab wounds in her chest, a fractured skull, and two broken ribs.[1][8] There was a man's bloody hand print on a nearby wall, ostensibly belonging to the killer.[9] The handprint was photographed by the Pennsylvania State Police and examined by two local fingerprint experts, but it was never mentioned again, either at trial or in contemporary newspaper accounts.[10][11] And it was never determined to belong to Alexander McClay Williams.

Early in the investigation, police posited that the murderer found Robare in bed reading a novel when he attempted to rape her and, upon failing, stabbed her with an ice pick and beat her with an unknown blunt instrument, therefore causing the skull and rib fractures. Delaware County authorities first questioned inmates at the reform institution where Robare and her husband worked.[9]

Three days after the murder, authorities claimed that they had evidence linking Alexander Williams to Robare's murder.[12] They then announced that Williams had confessed to Robare's murder. Authorities alleged that Williams confessed to fatally stabbing Robare with an ice pick in spite of Robare futilely offering him money to stop stabbing her.[13] Initially, authorities claimed that Williams' motive was revenge against Fred Robare for an unknown reason; authorities also posited that Williams murdered Vida Robare because she caught him in the act of stealing a box of shoe polish from her house. However, days later, the confession was amended to reflect that Williams allegedly murdered Robare because she fought against a rape attempt.[14] Overall, Williams was interrogated five times, all without a parent or attorney present, and signed three confessions. No eyewitness or direct evidence connected Williams to the crime.[15]

Williams was moved to a secure, private location to discourage mob violence following his confession.[16] Soon after Williams' confession changed, District Attorney William McCarter announced his intentions to charge Williams with first degree murder.[14]

At his trial, which took place in early January 1931, Williams was represented by William Ridley, the first black lawyer admitted to the Bar of Delaware County. Ridley was only paid $10 to both investigate the evidence and defend Williams, and he had 10 weeks to build his defense alone, without help from any other counsel.[17] Williams also faced an all-white jury at trial consisting of nine men and three women.[8][18]

Williams did not take the stand at his trial, and rather than proving his innocence, his defense attorney focused on attempting to convince the jury to recommend mercy and sentence Williams to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.[19] Williams' attorneys argued for mercy on the basis of his young age, but Judge Fronefield instructed the jury to reject his defense's age plea.[20] At the conclusion of his one-day trial, the jury deliberated for four hours before finding Williams guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death. After the judge handed down the death sentence, Williams shouted in court that he had been promised he would not be executed if he confessed.[7]

Williams did not appeal his verdict or death sentence,[8] but he did submit an application before the state pardon and paroles board for a commutation. In mid-April 1931, Governor Gifford Pinchot initially scheduled Williams' execution to take place on May 11, but due to a member of the board being terminally ill and unable to participate in the hearing for Williams' application, Governor Pinchot granted Williams respite, delaying the execution until the board could convene to hear Williams' plea.[21][22]

Shortly before the execution, Williams' attorney made a plea on the basis of Williams allegedly being a "psychopathic inferior," evidence which was supposedly withheld from the jury during the trial but could have had an impact on the jury's decision had they known. The plea resulted in a temporary delay of Williams' execution so a commission could investigate Williams' mental state and release a report.[23][24] After assessing Williams' claims for two weeks, the board refused to intervene in his death sentence.[12]

On June 8, 1931, Williams was executed in Pennsylvania's electric chair. Reporters stated that Williams was emotional, visibly shaking, and reliant on the assistance of a deputy during his walk to the death chamber, and that his voice choked with emotion as he attempted to pray with the prison chaplain.[12] He was placed in the chair at 7:01 a.m. and pronounced dead five minutes later, after one shock.[25] Williams became the youngest person the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ever executed.[26]

Relatives claimed his body for burial in an unmarked grave at Green Lawn Cemetery in Chester, Pennsylvania. After a GoFundMe crowdfunding effort to raise money, Williams had a headstone installed 87 years later, in 2018, for $850 USD. The headstone is engraved with text reading, "Executed for a crime he did not commit. Justice deferred is justice denied." Dr. Samuel Lemon, Williams's only surviving sibling Susie Williams-Carter, and several other surviving relatives attended the headstone's dedication ceremony on September 29, 2018.[3][12]

• George Stinney
• List of wrongful convictions in the United States
• Overturned convictions in the United States
• Capital punishment debate in the United States
• Wrongful execution