Alabama Executes Jeremy Williams for Murder of Five-Year-Old Kamarie Holland

ATMORE, Alabama — Alabama has executed Jeremy Tremaine Williams, who was sentenced to death for the 2021 kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland.

Williams, 42, was put to death by lethal injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore on Thursday, August 13, 2026. The execution took place after he chose to abandon further appeals and asked authorities to expedite the carrying out of his death sentence.

Williams' case stemmed from the December 2021 disappearance and death of Holland, who lived in Columbus, Georgia. Investigators determined that the child had been taken across the state line to an abandoned property in Phenix City, Alabama, where she was sexually assaulted and killed.

A Russell County jury convicted Williams in April 2024 on four capital-murder counts, including murder of a child under 14 and murder committed during kidnapping, rape and first-degree sodomy. He was subsequently sentenced to death.

The case attracted national attention because of the circumstances surrounding Holland's death and evidence presented during Williams' trial. Prosecutors presented recordings made by Williams as evidence, prompting an emotional response from jurors.

Williams sought to accelerate execution

Unlike most death-row inmates, Williams actively sought to shorten the appellate process.

Court records show that in early 2025 he informed authorities that he wanted to abandon his appeals and have an execution date set. Because Alabama law requires automatic appellate review in capital cases, he could not simply terminate every aspect of the review process. Instead, courts examined whether his decision to proceed without appellate counsel was knowing and voluntary.

In May 2025, a circuit court found that Williams understood the consequences of representing himself and declining to pursue further appellate arguments. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals subsequently affirmed his convictions and death sentence in March 2026.

The Alabama Supreme Court later authorized the execution, paving the way for Governor Kay Ivey to set the execution window. Ivey ordered that the execution take place between August 13 and 6 a.m. August 14.

Mother sentenced to 20 years

Holland's mother, Kristy Siple, also faced criminal charges in connection with the case.

Siple pleaded guilty to federal sex-trafficking charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her case was separate from Williams' capital-murder prosecution.

The circumstances surrounding the child's exploitation formed a central part of the prosecution's case against Williams and Siple.

Court upheld death sentence

In its March 2026 ruling, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that Williams' convictions and death sentence should stand. The court noted that the capital convictions involved the murder of a five-year-old during kidnapping, rape and sodomy and found the death sentence neither excessive nor disproportionate under Alabama law.

Williams' execution was one of three executions carried out in the United States on August 13, 2026, alongside executions in Oklahoma and Tennessee the first time since 2010 that three states executed prisoners on the same day.

The execution brought to an end the capital case arising from Kamarie Holland's death nearly five years earlier, after Williams' decision to forgo further appellate challenges allowed Alabama authorities to move forward with the sentence.