In 1993, Derrick Williams was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Manatee County, Florida for crimes that he didn’t commit based on questionable eyewitness identification. Nearly 17 years later, DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project of Florida proved his innocence and he was exonerated on April 4, 2011. 

The Crime

On August 6, 1992, a 25-year-old white woman arrived at her home and noticed a black man standing on her front porch. After watching the man walk off her property, the woman attempted to exit her vehicle when the man suddenly reappeared and forced his way inside her car. He then pushed her over to the passenger side and began to drive. 

Once parked inside an orange grove, the attacker ordered the woman to climb into the backseat and undress. He made her cover her face with his grey t-shirt as he sexually assaulted her. Following the rape, the attacker tied her arms and legs with her pantyhose. As he exited the vehicle, the woman managed to untie herself and drive away with the attacker’s grey t-shirt still in the back seat.

The Investigation

The victim first identified Williams from a photo line-up that contained two pictures of Williams. After viewing the photo lineup, the victim concluded that she was 80% certain that Williams was her attacker. After a live lineup identification procedure, the victim stated that she was 100% certain Williams was her attacker. Williams’ defense would emphasize that shoddy police procedures (the double inclusion of Williams’ photo) had tainted the victim’s live lineup identification. 

The Trial

The victim’s eyewitness testimony was the key evidence at trial, although her view had been deliberately and thoroughly obstructed for the majority of the attack. The victim stated that the best view she got of her attacker was from her car when she saw him standing on her porch, approximately 20 feet away in the rain.

The victim had also described her attacker as 5’6”-5’8” with a scar on his gut. Williams is 5’11” with a scar on his back. At trial, she changed her testimony to say that the scar was on her attacker’s back, even though she had previously told investigators that she didn’t see his back. 

The state’s central piece of physical evidence against Williams was the grey t-shirt. Though a microscopic examination by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement determined that the hair found on the grey t-shirt did not belong to Williams, the prosecution argued the inaccuracy of microscopic hair analysis and maintained the t-shirt belonged to Williams based on the testimony of Williams’ girlfriend who claimed that Williams left the house wearing a grey t-shirt and returned wearing a red t-shirt. 

Throughout the trial, Williams consistently asserted his innocence and contended that the victim misidentified him. Friends, neighbors and family members provided an alibi establishing that Williams was at a family barbecue at the time of the incident.  They also testified that they had never seen Williams wearing a grey t-shirt similar to the one left in the victim’s vehicle. Despite all efforts, Williams was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Post-Conviction

Williams’ family wrote to the Innocence Project of Florida in 2006. In July 2009, they requested DNA testing on the hair found on the grey t-shirt, the victim’s clothing, and materials from the victim’s rape kit. Shortly thereafter, they were informed by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office that nearly all evidence from Williams’ case had been destroyed by mass incineration in 2003. A water leakage had flooded a vault and the resulting water damage to materials from his case was irreparable. 

The negligence of law enforcement officials resulted in the destruction of evidence from approximately 3,600 cases. Rather than make any effort to determine if any pieces of evidence were salvageable, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office knowingly violated Florida state law which clarifies that all physical evidence must be preserved until the inmate has served the term of his sentence. 

The Innocence Project of Florida secured post-conviction DNA testing of the skin cells and sweat from the inside collar of the attacker’s grey t-shirt. Based on the exculpatory results, a Manatee County judge vacated Williams’ conviction and ruled that Williams’ due process rights had been violated by the State’s destruction of exculpatory evidence. Prosecutors announced that they intended to appeal the decision, but on April 4, 2011, the state decided to drop Williams’ case, ending his long ordeal.