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SOUTH CAROLINA, USA. MAN EXECUTED FOR RAPE, MURDER OF BOY
July 14, 2006: making no final statement and keeping his eyes trained on the ceiling, William "Junior" Downs was put to death by lethal injection for the 1999 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 6-year-old South Carolina boy.
The 39-year-old Augusta, Ga., man said he stopped Keenan O'Mailia as the boy rode his bicycle along a dirt path. Downs said he asked the boy his name, then threw him to the ground and strangled him. Downs did not pursue any appeals after pleading guilty to the crimes in 2002. Before he was sentenced to death, he said he deserved to die for his crime.
"I think it would be disrespectful to the family and disrespectful to the whole world if you did not give me the death penalty," Downs said at the time.
Downs also pleaded guilty in 2005 to kidnapping, raping and killing a 10-year-old boy in Augusta in 1991. Since he was already condemned to die in South Carolina, he agreed to be sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years.
In both cases, authorities said Downs sexually assaulted the victims after they were dead.
The mother of the Georgia victim was present to watch Downs take his final breath. Two of members of Downs' family, a brother and a sister, also witnessed his death. (Sources: Associated Press, 14/07/2006)
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