Death penalty deliberations to resume next week

HONOLULU — Jurors ended about a week of deliberations without reaching a decision in the fate of a former soldier facing the death penalty.

The jury is scheduled to return to federal court in Honolulu on Thursday to continue deliberating on Naeem Williams’ sentence. They must decide whether he is sentenced to death or to spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of his 5-year-old daughter.

They deliberated Friday without sending any questions to the judge.

The same jury convicted Williams in April of murder in the 2005 beating death.

This is the first federal death penalty trial in the history of Hawaii’s statehood. Hawaii abolished the death penalty in 1957. Because this case is in federal court, the death penalty is an option.