Tuesday, January 23, 2007
© Copyright 2013
Gwinnett Daily Post
ATLANTA (AP) - A man who spent 21 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit will be released from prison Tuesday after being cleared by DNA evidence, District Attorney Paul Howard said Monday.
Willie O. Williams was exonerated based on evidence tested after a request of the Georgia Innocence Project, which had received a letter from Williams in July 2005 saying he had been wrongly imprisoned. Williams was convicted based on eye-witness testimony by the victim. ''We are convinced today Mr. Williams was not responsible for this,'' Howard said at a news conference. The prosecutor said he has started an investigation to find who was the actual rapist in the April 1985 attack on a woman at an apartment complex parking lot in Sandy Springs. Howard said Williams would be returned to Fulton County from the D. Ray James Correctional Facility in Folkston and released on bond before the charges are officially cleared in about two weeks.More like this story
- DNA key in '99 rape trial opening today ( June 1, 2010 )
- ROBINSON: In search of justice, not convictions ( January 8, 2011 )
- State in brief ( October 13, 2005 )
- Lawmakers mulling eyewitness identification rules ( December 30, 2007 )
- DNA key in '99 rape trial opening today ( June 1, 2010 )
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