State of Illinois
Prisoner Review Board
James L. Williams, Chairman
319 E. Madison Street, Suite A.
Springfield, IL 62701
1 Sep 94
To: Attention: Mr. James L. Williams, Chairman
Prison Review Board of Martin Ray Williams (L-21878)
Illinois State Board of Corrections
I am the grandson of Robert Jackson and a U.S. Marine stationed aboard Henderson Hall, Virginia. Once a year, I am forced to remember a man who participated in an unjust and unprovoked killing. Once a year, I am forced to remember killing without justification. That memory is especially bitter this year as I was married in April, a wedding that Robert Jackson never got to see. I think about Ryan, my stepson and it pains me to realize that he will never know his great-grandfather, Robert Jackson. Martin Williams assisted Donald Grant in the murder of my Grandfather, Robert Jackson in 1976. Then, Martin Williams called my Grandmother, Marybelle Jackson, at St. Francis Hospital to check on my Grandfather’s status as he lay dying. Next he had the audacity to brag about “doing something, but not getting caught by the cops” to a family friend that he had the misfortune to work with. Martin Williams was arrested after this family friend went to the police department. Last year, he had the nerve to call my Grandmother from prison. Martin Williams has continually demonstrated that he has no regrets about his past, nor any respect for the life he ended and the family left behind.
Parole for Martin Ray Williams would mean needless suffering for another family; a family he has yet to scar with his brutality. He has done enough to warrant execution, yet he is close to parole this year and I am asking why? What is a human life worth to the State of Illinois in 1994? Apparently not as much as it is worth to the Jackson’s, the Landrith’s, the Morgan’s, and the Finn’s. Martin Williams is neither innocent nor sorry and above all he is not worthy of parole, let alone life itself. To parole Martin Williams is to condone the murder of my Grandfather, Robert Jackson. I promise you that if Martin Williams is paroled this year, the Illinois State Board of Corrections will see him again. This time it will be a different family and a different atrocity, but that is all in your hands. I cannot express in words how disgusted and enraged I will be if another family like mine has to write letters every year and put flowers on a grave because a Prison Review Board decided that Martin Williams should be released to kill again.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
JAMES A. LANDRITH, JR.