TAMMS SETS ITS FIRST EXECUTION ON NOV. 18

TAMMS, Ill. -- Willie Enoch, who was convicted of murder in Peoria County in 1984, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 18 at Tamms Correctional Center.

Enoch was convicted of stabbing a woman to death in 1984. He has been scheduled for execution twice before but received reprieves.

The Illinois Supreme Court set the latest date for the evening execution earlier this month.

Enoch would become the first man to be executed at the Tamms super-maximum-security prison.

An execution was scheduled Sept. 23 at the prison, but Anthony Porter, convicted of a 1983 crime in Cook County, received a reprieve a few days before.

The Tamms prison is the new site for all future executions in Illinois. The prison has a specially designed death chamber but does not include a death row.

Inmates awaiting death will be housed at Menard and Pontiac correctional centers, both maximum-security prisons, until a couple of days before their executions, when they will be moved to Tamms. The Tamms prison includes special rooms for family, friends and attorneys.

The method of execution will be by chemical injection with lethal drugs.

Illinois prisoners were previously executed at Stateville Corrections Center near Joliet, the site of executions since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1997. Only 11 executions have taken place since then, with latest on Jan. 21 at Stateville Center.

The Tamms prison opened this year. Gov. Jim Edgar dedicated the prison, which cost $73 million and holds 500 prisoners, on Feb. 4. The first prisoners were admitted March 10.

The prison also includes an adjacent 200-bed minimum-security work camp that opened in 1995.

George Welborn, who has been with the Illinois Department of Corrections for more than 20 years, is warden at Tamms.

Tamms prison officials are prepared for the execution. They underwent training and procedures for the Porter execution.

With no death row, Enoch will be placed in a holding cell 30 feet from the death chamber when he is brought to Tamms.

He will be moved to the holding cell, and a table will be placed outside so that family and lawyers can visit with him. He won't get to touch anyone other than corrections workers before the execution.

The execution process take only a few minutes.