Ex-GI Executed for ’78 Murder of Prostitute

JACKSON, Ga. — A former soldier was executed in Georgia’s electric chair Thursday night for bludgeoning a prostitute to death in 1978.

William Henry Hance, a 45-year-old former Ft. Benning soldier, died at 10:10 p.m. after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal in a 5-3 vote. Justices Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.

Hance maintained his innocence in a seven-minute statement before his execution at the state prison in Jackson. He had been convicted of two other murders in a military court and sentenced to life in prison.

Earlier Thursday, a former construction worker was executed in Texas for killing the husband of a restaurant manager during a 1985 robbery.

Freddie Webb was put to death by injection hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal. He was convicted of murdering Leopoldo Cantu, who was shot after a robbery at a restaurant. At the time, Webb was on parole for raping a child.