ANGOLA, La. Dobie Gillis Williams, who stabbed a woman to death during an attempted rape in 1984, was executed by lethal injection on Friday after a last meal of ice cream and a dozen candy bars, prison authorities said. Williams, the first prisoner executed in Louisiana in more than a year, was convicted of stabbing Sonja Merritt Knippers eight times in the bathroom of her home in Many, La., as her husband Herbert tried to break through the locked door to help the screa Williams, who never admitted guilt for the crime, was on Furlough from another prison sentence at the time.

Prison spokeswoman Cathy Jett said the last thing Williams said before being declared dead at 7:48 p.m. EST (0048 GMT Saturday) was: I don't have any hard feelings. Bless you all. Bless you. For his last meal, he chose 12 candy bars, a pint of chocolate ice cream, lemon pie, coconut pie and a coca-cola. Jett said he finished all the candy and half the ice cream but did not eat the pies.

Williams' attorneys won an 11th-hour stay of execution last autumn after saying DNA testing on a drop of blood found on the bathroom window could prove his innocence. But the DNA tests concluded it was Williams' blood. Herbert Knippers and the victim's son, Monte Knippers, witnessed the execution. They did not make a statement afterwards. Between 1978 and 1982, Williams was arrested for several burglaries, aggravated burglary and armed robbery.

(Reuter)