WASHINGTON – The interim director appointed to command the federal prison where Jeffrey Epstein died was placed in office after serving as an executioner for at least five federal executions at the end of the Trump administration.
The Federal Prison Bureau appointed Eric Williams as the acting director of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City in late January, after the former director, Marti Licon-Vitale, abruptly left office. His one-year term was hampered by the widespread spread of the coronavirus, complaints from inmates about miserable conditions, a gun smuggled into prison and at least the death of an inmate.
Williams was appointed to the post of high-level director just over a month after his last execution, having played a central role in the unprecedented execution of capital punishment under the Trump administration and serving as executioner in at least five of the 13 executions in six months. He was previously director of a federal medium security prison in Illinois.
The Bureau of Prisons identified Williams in a lawsuit as having participated in the executions of Brandon Bernard and William LeCroy. The Associated Press has witnessed all federal executions since the Justice Department resumed executions in July and identified Williams as a participant in at least three other executions.
During the executions, Williams, wearing black gloves, stood by the prisoners while they were tied to a stretcher. He read the death sentences out loud into a microphone before asking if prisoners wanted to make a final statement. When asked prisoners if they had any last words, he spoke in a cold, unofficial voice, never seeming to offer solace to dying prisoners. As executions continued, Williams kept his eyes fixed on the dying inmates.
The AP reported last week that executions at the end of Trump’s presidency, concluded in a short window over a few weeks, probably acted as a coronavirus over-spreading event, something health experts have warned could happen when the Department Justice insisted on resuming executions during a pandemic. About 70% of death row inmates fell ill with Covid-19 just days after Bernard’s execution and members of the team, including members of the execution team, and media witnesses also contracted the virus after further executions.
The Bureau of Prisons did not answer questions from the AP about who offered Williams the job, how he had been selected for the position – one of the most visible board positions, in charge of a unit considered one of the safest prisons in America – and whether his role in federal executions was a factor in his nomination.
In a statement, the agency said that “a number of decisions were made during the pandemic based on the BOP’s correctional needs, as well as other factors such as family, doctors and other concerns” and as a result, Williams was temporarily assigned to the New York City prison until a new director is appointed.
Licon-Vitale’s abrupt departure from the Bureau of Prisons – which a spokesman described as a retirement – came after prison officials left a prisoner who, according to the prisoner’s lawyer, has the mental capacity of a child of 8 years in a 24-hour detention cell while waiting for a competency assessment, a violation of prison system regulations.
In the weeks before his retirement, a correctional officer at the facility reported sexual misconduct by a superior, that prison officials delayed reporting to Bureau of Prisons officials, three people familiar with the matter told the AP. People were unable to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Williams is the fourth director of the New York City prison in 18 months, and the third person in charge since a concussion following Epstein’s death in August 2019. Epstein’s death a month after his arrest for child sex trafficking – that the former Attorney General William Barr called it a “perfect storm of errors” – it has been a lingering shadow over the facilities for 600 inmates in Manhattan.
The Justice Department’s inspector general is still investigating the lapses that allowed the wealthy financier to end his life while in federal custody. Two correctional officers responsible for monitoring him that night are awaiting trial on charges of lying on prison records because they were sleeping and surfing the Internet instead of doing their job.
Williams joined the Bureau of Prisons in 2003 as a correctional officer in a Texas prison and, most recently, served as director of FCI Greenville in Illinois.