Author Topic: Navy veteran exonerated, released from prison after serving nearly 30 years for a murder he didn't  (Read 235 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline libertybele

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 56,522
  • Gender: Female
Navy veteran exonerated, released from prison after serving nearly 30 years for a murder he didn't commit

In 1994, Herman Williams, now 58, was convicted by an Illinois court for the murder of his ex-wife. Last week, Williams’ conviction was vacated by agreement of the Lake County state’s attorney’s office, which dismissed all charges against him.

According to the Illinois Innocence Project, which worked to overturn Williams’ conviction, the Lake County state’s attorney’s office acknowledged that Williams’ conviction “was based on scientifically unsupported forensic pathology testimony regarding the victim’s time of death, that the prosecution hid favorable evidence at his original trial, and that the detective who claimed Mr. Williams confessed is now known to have engaged in a pattern of misconduct, including securing false confessions and claiming suspects made admissions of guilt in other innocence cases.”

Williams’ ex-wife, Penny Williams, was found in a pond several days after disappearing. She died from blunt force trauma and defensive wounds.

After Penny Williams went missing, local police and the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force focused on Herman Williams — a Navy chief petty officer at the time — as the only possible suspect, ignoring other leads in the case, according to the Innocence Project. Herman Williams was arrested, convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Advanced DNA testing was not available at the time of Williams’ conviction. In 2021, new DNA testing revealed evidence that showed Williams did not commit the murder.

The Innocence Project also found other errors in the state’s prosecution of the case. For example, at trial, the state presented testimony from an expert who had compared soil from the crime scene area to soil from Williams’ truck wheel and told the jury that the soils matched. “A 2021 review of the soil comparison in this case found it to have been rife with errors and unreliability,” according to the organization.....................

https://www.theblaze.com/news/navy-veteran-exonerated-30-years-prison
Romans 12:16-21

Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, do not claim to be wiser than you are.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.  If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all…do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Offline verga

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9,702
  • Gender: Male
Sounds like he has a heck of a lawsuit.
In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
�More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.�-Woody Allen
If God invented marathons to keep people from doing anything more stupid, the triathlon must have taken him completely by surprise.