This is an awful story, be forewarned:

A convicted killer, struggling with guards and pleading for his life until the last moment, was executed today for killing a woman during a robbery 11 years ago. Lewis Williams continued to profess his innocence even as he was carried into the death chamber in Ohio by four guards.

“I’m not guilty. I’m not guilty. God, please help me,” Williams said as he was strapped to the execution table to face death by lethal injection. He continued to cry out as his mother, Bonnie Williams, sobbed in a room separated by windows from the death chamber.

He kept pleading even in his final official statement, given at 10:07am . “God, please help me. God, please hear my cry,” Williams said. Williams continued to cry out even after warden James Haviland pulled the microphone away. Williams continued yelling until 10:08am when he abruptly stopped speaking. His chest rose and fell a couple of times.

Haviland ordered the curtains drawn at 10:14am for the coroner to determine that Williams was dead. Williams, 45, was executed for shooting a 76-year-old woman in the face in a 1983 robbery. He was the first Ohio inmate whose mental retardation claim was rejected to be executed. For the first time, witnesses, including Williams’ mother, watched members of the execution team insert the needles that delivered the lethal drugs.