Jurors in Hawaii’s first death penalty murder trial have reached a decision on whether former Schofield Barracks soldier Naeem Williams should die or spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his 5-year-old daughter.
That decision won’t be known, however, until Friday when their verdict is read in open court.
A verdict means the jurors voted unanimously for either life in prison or death.
If they had ended their deliberations deadlocked, the sentence would be life in prison. The jurors never gave the court any indication that they were deadlocked.
Jurors sent the court a note at 2:55 p.m. Thursday saying they had reached a verdict. The note also said the process had left them "emotionally drained," and the jurors asked the court to postpone the reading of their verdict until Friday.
Over the objections of the lawyers for Williams and the government, U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright granted the jurors their wish. He received their verdict, placed it under seal and ordered them to return to court Friday.
Thursday was the seventh day of deliberations on a sentence for the 34-year-old Williams for killing his daughter, Talia, in their Wheeler Army Airfield family quarters on July 16, 2005.
They had previously found him guilty of capital murder through child abuse, and guilty of a second capital murder charge for killing the girl after months of torturing her.
The same 12 jurors later found Williams eligible for a death sentence. They have been listening to testimony and argument since March 11.
Williams is the first person to stand trial for a death penalty offense in the state since the Territorial Legislature abolished capital punishment in 1957. Williams was tried under federal law, which still has capital punishment, because his daughter died on a U.S. military installation.
