Search Term(s):
Blog Tags:
Order by: Date Relevancy
Your search returned 7 entries.
DNA testing leads to actual perpetrator in Georgia case
Posted: February 12, 2007
Willie “Pete” Williams served 21 years in prison before DNA testing, obtained by his attorneys at the Georgia Innocence Project, proved his innocence. Those same DNA results have now led police to another man, Kenneth Wicker, who has been arrested and charged with the 1985 rape for which Williams was convicted.
Wicker pled guilty to similar crimes in 1985 and was presented as an alternate suspect by Williams’ lawyers in a 1986 appeal. The victim had picked Williams out of a photo lineup, however, and said she was 120 percent certain he was the perpetrator.
Williams' attorney at the time, Michael Schumacher, said Friday the April 1985 attacks were not linked to Wicker because authorities were already locked in on Williams as a suspect.Williams has not been officially exonerated yet – he is awaiting a court hearing that will officially clear his record. Check back here for updates.
Schumacher even brought up the Wicker assaults in a 1986 hearing while trying to get his client a new trial. That hearing, where the attorney even had brought Wicker into the courtroom, most likely laid the groundwork that led to Wicker's arrest Friday.
"There's no way he'd be arrested now without that," Schumacher said. "I laid the trail of crumbs for someone else to come and pick up."
There are eerie similarities in looking at police reports from the time….
Williams was accused of raping a woman April 5, 1985, and attempting to rape another five days later. He was arrested April 28, 1985.
"But the attacks continued with the same M.O., down to the same words — he asked the victims about 'Carol,' " Schumacher said.
Read the full story. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 02/10/07, Payment required for full article)
- Previous blog entries on this case.
- All six Georgia men who have been proven innocent by DNA testing were misidentified by eyewitnesses or victims. Now Georgia lawmakers are considering a bill to improve the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.
- The Georgia Innocence Project website
Learn more about eyewitness misidentification in our Understand The Causes section.
Tags: Georgia, Willie Williams
CNN: An exoneration raises questions about eyewitness identification in Georgia
Posted: October 25, 2007 4:42 pm
In a new video and article today on CNN, Willie “Pete” Williams describes the struggle of spending half his life in Georgia prison for a rape he didn’t commit. He tells reporter Thom Patterson that it took him years to overcome his anger at the injustice he suffered.
"I couldn't function out there around the other inmates," Williams said. "I was mad, I was bitter. I felt the whole world just gave me up."The wrongful convictions of Williams and five other Georgia men were all all based, at least in part, on eyewitness misidentification, the leading cause of wrongful conviction. This week, Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck testified about proposed reforms before a panel of Georgia lawmakers charged with reviewing statewide eyewitness identification practices and reporting on possible improvements to these procedures.
It wasn't until 1997 -- more than a decade after he was locked away -- that Williams' own voice freed him from the grip of his anger. At Valdosta State Prison, a close friend named Charlie Brown helped him join a Christian choir -- leading him to accept Jesus.
"Singing was like being out here, in a sense. It freed me from all the things, from all the fights, from the officers who were cruel, prison, stabbings," said Williams, who especially embraced the hymn "Amazing Grace."
Read the full story and watch the video interview here. (CNN, 10/25/07)
Read more about eyewitness identification reforms in today’s CNN article.
Download the full meeting schedule of the Georgia House Study Committee on Eyewitness Identification Procedures.
Tags: Willie Williams
One year of freedom for Georgia exoneree
Posted: February 14, 2008 12:07 pm
This week marks the one-year anniversary of Willie "Pete" Williams' exoneration in Georgia. He was convicted based on eyewitness misidentification in 1985 and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He was exonerated on February 13, 2007 by postconviction DNA testing after serving nearly 22 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
Read more about Willie “Pete” Williams' case here.
Read yesterday’s blog post on eyewitness identification reforms in Georgia.
Other exoneration anniversary this week:
Thursday: Bruce Godschalk (Served 14.5 Years, Exonerated 2/14/02)
Tags: Bruce Godschalk, Willie Williams, Eyewitness Identification
Georgia lawmakers approve compensation for Willie "Pete" Williams
Posted: March 5, 2008 1:15 pm
A key committee of the Georgia House of Representatives approved $1.2 million in compensation Monday for a man who spent 21 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. Willie “Pete” Williams was exonerated last year after DNA tests proved that another man committed the 1985 rape of which Williams was convicted.
The House Appropriations Committee approved a resolution from Rep. Steve Tumlin (R-Marietta) that would give Williams a $100,000 lump sum payment and the balance of the $1.2 million in yearly payments over 20 years.The resolution must still be passed by the Georgia House and Senate. Georgia is one of 28 states that do not have a law compensating the exonerated for years they lost in prison for a crime they didn’t commit. The Innocence Project has proposed that these states pass uniform bills rather than requiring each exoneree to go before the legislature for a “private bill” like this one.
Tumlin said the payments were meant to compensate Williams for the wages and other potential benefits he lost while serving time in prison.
Williams was 23 when he was convicted on eyewitness testimony from the victim of a Sandy Springs rape. Another man is now being prosecuted for the crime. "Losing your 20s, 30s and early 40s," Tumlin said. "Think about that if it were you."
Read the full story here. (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 03/03/08)
Williams was represented by the Georgia Innocence Project; read more about his case here.
Read more about the Innocence Project’s recommended policy reforms to compensate the wrongfully convicted here.
Tags: Georgia, Willie Williams, Exoneree Compensation
The incalculable price of misidentification
Posted: March 5, 2008 2:05 pm
As Georgia lawmakers advance compensation for Willie “Pete” Williams, a column in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls for eyewitness identification reforms to prevent the injustice Williams suffered from happening to anyone else. The Innocence Project has worked with partners in Georgia (including the Georgia Innocence Project, which represented Williams) to support eyewitness identification reforms, but today’s column details the troubled road of this legislation and the compromises that appear necessary in order to get the bill passed.
You'd think that legislators would rush to find remedies that would at least lower the number of wrongful convictions.All seven Georgia exonerees were convicted based partly on eyewitness misidentification, read more about their cases here.
You'd be wrong. So far, little has come from the efforts of Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta) to improve procedures for eyewitness identifications in criminal investigations. The bill is stuck, even though all seven of the exonerated were wrongly convicted largely on the basis of faulty eyewitness identifications.
Benfield first introduced a bill to standardize eyewitness IDs two years ago, but she met fierce resistance from police and prosecutors. When the legislation was assigned to a study committee, usually a sign that a bill has little support, Benfield faithfully shepherded it through, tacking and trimming to placate critics.
Now, the bill contains just two mandates: By 2009, Georgia law enforcement agencies must develop written procedures on how to administer eyewitness identifications; and by 2011, an officer trained in those best practices must supervise eyewitness ID procedures. But Benfield's bill is still stuck in the Rules Committee, where it awaits a date for a vote on the House floor.
Read the full column here. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 03/05/08)
Has your state enacted eyewitness reforms? Find out on our interactive map.
Tags: Georgia, Willie Williams, Exoneree Compensation
Georgia lawmakers vote to compensate exoneree
Posted: April 3, 2008 4:50 pm
Willie “Pete” Williams was exonerated in 2007 after serving 22 years in Georgia prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Williams was a client of the Georgia Innocence Project. Exonerees nationwide receive little or no government assistance immediately upon their release, and Georgia is one of the 27 states with no state law providing some exonerees with compensation after an application and approval process.
But Georgia lawmakers have passed laws compensating three of the state’s seven exonerees individually, and the state Senate yesterday approved a bill that would pay Williams $1.2 million over 20 years. The bill will now move to the House.
Read more about Williams’ case here.
Seven Georgia convicts have been cleared by DNA evidence. In every case, the men were wrongly convicted based on eyewitness accounts.
Despite that, a House bill sponsored by state Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, D-Atlanta, which would have provided more training for police when dealing with witness ID procedures failed to move this legislative session.
Read the full story here. (Associated Press, 04/02/08Is your state one of the 27 without a compensation law? Find out here.
Tags: Willie Williams
Suspect in Georgia Exoneration Case Will Not Be Tried
Posted: February 2, 2009 3:50 pm
Willie “Pete” Williams was cleared nearly two years ago in Georgia after serving more than 21 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. When Williams – a client of the Georgia Innocence Project – was freed, prosecutors said the DNA profile that proved Williams’ innocence also pointed to another man – Kenneth Wicker – as the perpetrator of the rape. Wicker pled guilty to similar attacks around the time of the rape for which Williams was convicted. But now he’s free and will not be tried for the crime, after prosecutors decided to drop charges against him.
The victim in the case refuses to testify again – and still believes Williams is guilty – and prosecutors say they are unable to move forward without her identification of Wicker.
Another prosecutor interviewed by the Atlanta Journal Constitution disagrees, saying jurors will understand that eyewitness misidentifications are common and that know how to weigh an unreliable identification against strong scientific evidence.
Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said the prosecutor should act on such strong evidence.
“He thinks he’s letting a serial rapist go? That’s outrageous,” Scheck said. “Tell that to the next victim.”
Read the full story here. (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 02/01/09)
Tags: Willie Williams