Appeal of man convicted of 1988 lawmaker slaying rejected

HARRISBURG » A state appeals court has ruled that a man who was a teenager when he beat a Pennsylvania state lawmaker to death with a hammer three decades ago is still too dangerous to be released from prison

The decision comes more than a year after now-49-year-old Bernard Williams was resentenced to the same life prison term imposed originally. A new sentencing hearing was required due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring mandatory life terms for juvenile offenders.

Williams was 17 when, authorities say, he attacked state Rep. William Telek with a hammer and left his body in the middle of a suburban Harrisburg street in 1988. He also stole about $100 and the lawmaker’s car.

Prosecutors said during the hearing that a forensic psychiatrist has concluded that Williams is “permanently incorrigible,” and PennLive.com reports that the Superior Court panel agreed.

Judge Victor P. Stabile noted that Dauphin County Senior Judge Jeannine Turgeon focused on the fact that Williams had committed three dozen assaults while in prison over the previous two decades, stabbing a corrections officer with a shank in 1993 and more recently stabbing another inmate with a bolt.

He wrote that only after 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling presented a possible hope of freedom did Williams take any action indicating reform, such as participating in victim awareness classes and Bible study.

Stabile concluded that Turgeon was correct in saying that given his “extreme violent assaultive history” there is “absolutely no indication (Williams) is currently less prone to violence than he was when he was younger.”

Williams apologized at his July 2018 re-sentencing, saying his heart goes out to the Telek family.

During last year’s resentencing, defense attorney Andrea Haynes argued that while there was no justification for her client’s actions, he was remorseful and there were factors from his troubled life to consider. A message seeking comment was left for her Monday.

This story was first published on Dec. 23, 2019. It was updated on Dec. 24, 2019, to correct that the lawmaker was attacked on a street, not in a parking garage.