Willie Otis "Pete" Williams/$1.2M awarded to man wrongfully imprisoned

[wheezer]

A man who spent 22 years in prison for a crime he did not commit was awarded a $1.2 million settlement by the Georgia General Assembly.

In a 119-19 vote, the Georgia gave final approval to compensate Willie Otis "Pete" Williams. Williams was convicted of rape, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy in 1985 ago because of faulty eyewitness testimony. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Williams, 47, was exonerated last year by DNA evidence which showed that he did not commit the crime.

"The conviction, incarceration, and subsequent loss of liberty and other damages occurred through no fault or negligence on the part of Mr. Williams, and it is only fitting and proper that he be compensated for his loss," the resolution states

Under the terms of the settlement, Williams won't have to pay state income taxes on the money from the state. The $1.2 million payout will be spread over 20 years.

If Williams is convicted of a felony within the next two decades, he would forfeit the rest of the money the state owes him.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/04/04/pwilliams_0405.html

[packy]

Forfeit the rest of the money the state owes him if he commits a felony, and they will spread the payout over 20 years. Why the stipulations I wonder. Wow sounds pretty crappy to me.

[Try2Win]

He deserves more money. jmo

[Roamer]

He's 47 now, and probably not in great shape. If he doesn't live for 20 more years the state is home free. Not right, IMO.

[Pandabear]

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/02/01/dna_0201_2DOT.html


Grim twist in ‘85 Atlanta rape case



When Willie O. “Pete” Williams emerged from prison after serving nearly 22 years for a rape he did not commit, he hugged his mother and said he just wanted a warm bath and a steak dinner.

The moment seemed like the first portion of justice finally being served. DNA evidence not only freed Williams, it also pointed a finger at a man who pleaded guilty two decades ago to a series of remarkably similar attacks: Kenneth Wicker.

Soon after Williams’ release in January 2007, a snarling Wicker was led off in handcuffs. In a news conference at the time, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Wicker’s DNA matched evidence preserved in the rape kit from the April 1985 attack that sent Williams to prison and a June 1985 rape that sent Wicker to prison.

“The evidence flowed from the same person,” Howard said.

But Wicker never went to trial for the crime and is now a free man. Prosecutors quietly dropped the case just days before he was to be tried in September.

The DNA proves there is “no question” that Wicker, now 49, committed the crime, Howard said .

“It’s clear he’s a serial rapist,” he said in a recent interview. “He should not be where he can harm anyone.”

But the woman still insists it was Williams who raped her and was adamant that she not testify again, Howard said. Her family knows nothing of the attack, he said, and subjecting her to relive the ordeal in court would be “obscene.”

“How long can you continue to traumatize this woman?” Howard asked. “We weighed all the circumstances and the most prudent thing would be to just let it go.”

Neither the victim, who now lives in Virginia, nor Wicker could be reached for comment. But Wicker’s previous convictions for rape, aggravated sodomy, kidnapping, robbery and aggravated assault raise questions about the decision to release him. Is justice best served by protecting a victim? Or by prosecuting a repeat offender and getting him off the street?

Public safety should win out, said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the New York-based Innocence Project.

“He thinks he’s letting a serial rapist go? That’s outrageous,” Scheck said. “Tell that to the next victim.”

It’s possible, attorneys say, to convict someone with DNA evidence even with contradicting eyewitness testimony.

Pete Skandalakis, a veteran Georgia prosecutor whose office successfully prosecuted a 28-year-old case after DNA cleared another man of rape charges, said he thought there was “still a pretty good case” against Wicker even if the victim still misidentifies the suspect.

“Jurors would understand the misidentification” by the victim, he said. “They wouldn’t understand why the DNA was there.”

He said his office would seek the victim’s input “but we’d also consider the impact to society.”

Fulton DA Howard admits the situation is frustrating.

Though the DNA points to Wicker as the rapist, “the other side of the equation,” he said, “is this woman has had so much of her life involved in this, [coming to trial] could ruin her life. She would have to testify. She would have to say it was forcible and against her will.

“I have to weigh this. I want her to salvage her life. As they say, justice is a blind woman. It’s a system of bad and good.”

Scheck said victims often insist they’ve correctly identified their attackers, even when proven wrong by DNA evidence.

He said about 75 percent of the 227 people exonerated by DNA nationwide were originally convicted on faulty eyewitness testimony. In 89 of those cases, the DNA testing has led to identification of “the real perpetrator,” according to the Innocence Project.

Cathy Rump was happy to see a subpoena in the mail, summoning her to testify against him in the rape Williams was exonerated of. Wicker was earlier convicted of attacking her in 1985, although she escaped being sexually assaulted.

She and four other women were attacked in spring and summer 1985 in apartment complex parking lots in north Atlanta and north Fulton. Wicker’s prosecution for three of those attacks ended in a mistrial. But he pleaded guilty to rape and other charges in a plea bargain that netted him a four-year prison sentence.

Rump and a woman Wicker was convicted of raping were called to testify to establish that he had a pattern of operation. In their attacks, Wicker was said to approach his victim and ask if she knew someone named “Carol” before flashing a gun or a knife and forcing her into the passenger’s seat. The same ruse was used in the rape Wicker was to be tried for.

Rump said she was “incredibly disappointed” this time when prosecutors told her in September that the April 1985 rape victim would not testify and the case was being dropped.

“I thought ‘Finally, this guy is going to get put away,’ ” said Rump, who thought he got off easy in the 1980s plea.

Then she added, “Why do they need the victim’s testimony? They have the DNA.”

Wicker’s release surprised Georgia Innocence Project attorneys, who had heralded his arrest, and even the defendant’s own lawyer.

Wicker’s attorney, Michael Hauptman, was preparing for trial in September when he got the unexpected news. “I got a call from Kenny,” he said. “He said he was out of jail, that all the charges were dead-docketed.”

“It was a Fulton County case at its best,” said Hauptman, who represented Wicker on the earlier charges. Hauptman said four different prosecutors handled the case. He has never heard from them why it was dropped.

Still, he thinks the state would have lost. “All the witnesses had ID’d the other guy,” he said, referring to Williams.

Numerous efforts to reach Wicker were unsuccessful, but he was clearly surprised in 2007 when the matter resurfaced. Reached by a reporter before his arrest, an angry Wicker, who lived in Decatur, said, “It was BS back then, and it’s BS right now. I’m not putting up with any 20-year-old BS.”

He returned to authorities’ attention thanks to Georgia Innocence Project attorneys who, after Williams’ exoneration, discovered 22-year-old court records that pointed to Wicker.

In September 1985, Williams’ defense attorney, Michael Schumacher, had brought Wicker into the courtroom to persuade the judge to give Williams another trial. Wicker had been arrested after Williams and charged with the similar series of abductions and a rape. This was the real culprit, Schumacher told the court.

The judge denied the request and sentenced Williams to 45 years in prison.

Wicker was sentenced to four years. Hauptman said Wicker denied the charges then “but took the pleas because it was such a good deal.”

Wicker was released in 1989. He drives a truck and “does nothing but go to work, come home and go to car races,” his lawyer told the court last year.

After Williams’ exoneration, the GBI issued a Feb. 8, 2007, report saying the DNA recovered from the victim in the 1985 case that Wicker pleaded guilty to “is a match to the male DNA recovered from the rape kit” of the victim in the Williams case.

Police arrested Wicker and brought him to a medical facility to draw his blood. The chained prisoner struggled, saying, “You ain’t getting my DNA!” records show. “Deputies had to physically place Mr. Wicker into the chair and bend his knees in order to place him into the chair,” the report said.

Once again, there was a match — Wicker’s DNA was the same as that in both 1985 rapes, a GBI report said.

A Fulton judge rejected defense motions that the 15-year statute of limitations had passed. The judge ruled that the clock started ticking once “DNA evidence definitively linked the defendant to the crime.”

A trial date was set. Then the case was dropped. Wicker walked.

Georgia law requires sex offenders who were convicted or on parole after July 1, 1996, to register their address.

Wicker was released from prison on July 27, 1989, and then served six years of probation, ending in 1995. He is not listed on the Georgia Sexual Offender Registry.

Schumacher, whose client, Williams, wrongfully spent 22 years behind bars and who brought Wicker to a courtroom in 1985, was amazed at the turn of events.

“Wicker has some magic fairy watching over him,” he said.

[wheezer]

I truly feel for the victim in this case, but IMO this should not be a choice. You have to way what could happen to the many versus the few. This guy is a complete danger to all women. Eyewitnesses can be wrong, I know she is convinced she is right, but she isn't. The worse part is I really don't think anyone feels bad that an innocent man spent 22 years in prison for something he didn't do. Not the lawyers, prosecutors, the victim, and of course the real perpetrator.